(Nellis AFB Hospital, January 2nd, 2036)

I open the door and step into the Syndicate Shop. Unlike ‘Melanie’s Magical Nick Nacks’ this shop is high-tech with multiple computer monitors facing the entrance. I look around and notice that except for the monitors the room is quite bare and feels almost clinical.

“Good evening Sir,” a high-pitched male voice says from behind and above me. I turn slowly to see a Four-foot man hovering in the air with wings that remind me of Hummingbirds wings. The books I’d read on Primore described them as a combination between a Pixie and Dragonfly Kin. Their race was referred to as a Pixigon, but they weren’t really a race as there were very few in existence, well, at least that was true before.

I turned and looked into the Pixigon’s eyes as I said, “Good Evening to you, I’m in the market to make some purchases”

“Very good Sir!” he said excitedly. “My name Is Qwixet, we accept trade and also Syndicate Credits. How will you be paying?” he asked.

“With Syndicate Credits”

“Very good sir this way. Please verify your identity by stepping onto this identity matrix. It’ll only take a second. Once loaded into the system you’ll be able to trade and make purchases…” his words stopped as the closest screen to me lit up

“Welcome Diamond Rank Member. How can we help you today?”

I figured all of the terminals were interlinked and stepped close to one as I followed, it looked like I was right. Qwixet moved over to the terminal, pressed a few buttons, then his eyes went wide.

“Sir, thank you for taking the time to come into my humble establishment. It is not often those with such good credit get caught up in a Cultivation”

“Completely understandable. Rules are rules after all, and I’m stuck here for the next 365 days. Before we make any purchases that will be registered in the system and change my odds, would you like to make a bet before those odds change?”

“Sadly, sir I do not have the finances to make such a bet.”

“If you had the finances?”

“Why yes sir, let me check your status. Sir, it states that your odds are still the same as when the Cultivation started. The Network also lists you as having died.?”

“I did. I’ll tell you what, I was going to give you a good tip today. How about I give you enough to make a really good wager, based on the odds in the system right now. You’ll need to purchase both insurances though. As you can see, should I die, I’ll be back.”

“How much are we talking sir?

“130,000 Syndicate Credits. 100,000 for the wager and 20,000 for the insurance. The last 10,000 is just so you have something you can spend later. That, of course, doesn’t include the commission you’re about to make, but once I start spending money I’m sure my odds will change.”

“Yes and no Sir. The network shows you as dead. Currently, it will not update your status until 6 a.m. the following morning, the usual time it takes someone to come back from the dead. Then your odds will be adjusted based on any purchases you make after that point.”

“So, you’re saying that the purchases I make today will not adjust my odds because they won’t show in the system until tomorrow morning?”

“Yes sir!”

“Excellent, I’ll tell you what though, the information you just gave me has value so here are the 130,000 credits I said I’d give you and when we’re done you can spend them and some of your bonus to make a wager on me, or not, I’ll leave it to you.”

“Very good sir, I accept”

The Syndicate Shop has recorded that you would like to transfer 130,000 Syndicate Credits to Qwixet. Is this correct”

“Yes”

Qwixet’s eyes went wide as he said “Thank you, sir, that’s very generous. Now if you’d like to peruse what’s for sale please use the terminal you are standing next to. If you have any questions about an item please feel free to ask.

“I do have one question; is there a special search criterion I can use to look for items not normally available to other individuals because the cost would be prohibitive?”

“Of course, sir, please think or say Diamond Rank to your terminal. The monitor will ask for Shop owner verification. Once authorized more search parameters. Will open up. I should warn you that the longer a Cultivation has been going on the more choices there will be. There’s a whole industry off planet that purchases and watches humans fight monsters. They will be trying to create items and get them into the system for sale based on fighting techniques and who is surviving. “

“There are people watching?”

“Not like that sir. This isn’t like that movie “The Running Man” or even some of the fiction that’s been released about planets being taken over by aliens and your race basically being the equivalent of rats in a maze. The individuals purchasing the footage work in the weapon, armor, spell and skill crafting industry and put their goods up for sale here is a way for them to make a quick profit. Also, they hope to do more business as people see their wares and try to find the same items. My point in telling you this is to say don’t be discouraged if there aren’t very many choices right now. The Cultivation started 4 hours ago. There’s be more choices as the days go by.”

I thought about what he said, nodded then said “Diamond Rank.” Qwixet floated over and tapped the screen in a quick sequence while a light lit up his face. I guess biometrics were part of the authorization process.

The menu was pretty self-explanatory and had a number of incredibly powerful items for sale. Spell Books, weapons, armor, magical items, and even modern weapons that were Magical. I quickly searched through the weapons and accessories when I remembered the movie Predator and searched for a minigun. I found what I was looking for, an “M134 Minigun of infinite ammo” I chose it and read the description

M134 Minigun of infinite ammo

The human-made M134 Minigun of infinite ammo creates and fires magical bullets equivalent to 7.62 mm ammo (.308 in).

Rate of Fire: 3,000 rounds per minute (50 rounds per second)

Muzzle Velocity: 2,800 feet/second

Maximum firing range: 3,280 feet

Manabattery: 3000, Recharge Rate 1 per second. This Battery can fire for 1 full minute and takes 50 minutes to fully recharge.

Damage: Variable, up to 6 per bullet

Ammunition has 1 point of armor penetration

Skill with weapon will increase armor penetration by 1 per level

Holy hell, that was impressive. I looked for a harness like the one Vasquez had in the movie Aliens and found it quickly. The Minigun was 100,000 credits and the harness was an additional 5,000. I didn’t even bother to haggle I purchased both. They appeared on the counter in front of me. I made sure the safety was on then added both to my inventory. I called forth the Harness and then the gun. The harness automatically fitted to me when it came out of my storage. Next, I called forth the Minigun onto the hydraulic arm. My strength was high enough now at 24 that it didn’t even phase me, but the harness made it easy to control. I dismissed both to my personal storage and designated them as a favorite in their current configuration. I went back over to the monitor and looked over all the weapons and noted the ones I liked and the ones I was going to buy for the military.

“Qwixet, do you have any clothing that is soul bound and self-repairing?”

“Why yes, there is a belt of wardrobes that if purchased can create whatever clothing you desire and is soulbound to you upon purchase.”

“ That sounds great, I’ll take one. Can the weapons I’m purchasing come with self-repair and soul-bonding options?

“Yes sir, any item that you purchase here can be self-repairing for an additional 10,000 credits. Soul binding is a little more expensive at 100,000 credits.”

“Okay, I would like two 9mm Berettas of Unlimited Ammo with self-repair and soul bound to me. Two p90 submachine guns with the same and finally that M134 Minigun and harness for the same as well as the belt of wardrobes. I purchased all seven items putting the wardrobe on. And the rest into my personal storage. I played with the functions of the belt and chose a black military jumpsuit and set that as my default. Whenever I came back from the dead I’d be wearing a black Jumpsuit no more naked man.

Next, I did a search on Unique and one-of-a-kind weapons and items

The first thing that caught my attention was an entry titled “Ender.” Above the selections was a note:

NOTE: Some Items available in Syndicate Shops are dependent on Ambient Magic. This is rated 1 – 10. Items with an Ambient Magic AM higher than the current Ambient Magic will have most, if not all, of their extra abilities and special properties unusable. You may still purchase an item but may not be able to use it for a while.

“Qwixet, what is the current Ambient Magic level in this area?”

“If you would look behind you and at the door, there is a number displayed. The current Ambient Magic outside the door is,” he said pausing as he looked at the number, “5 outside the door. Which doesn’t seem right. Cultivation started 4 hours ago it should be 1 or less.”

“It’s probably correct, don’t worry about it,” I said as I looked back at the monitor and looked over ‘Ender’

“Ender: Magical Longsword +(Variable)

Ender is a sentient Longsword containing the trapped soul of a Master Vampire. The sword becomes more powerful as it feeds on other life forms, including constructs elementals, etc… There is no upper limit to the level this sword can attain.

Base Damage: 6

Soulbound

AM: 10

Damage +1 and Armor Piercing per level. Half Damage in direct sunlight.

At will the Sword allows its wielder to do the following while held.

Fly up to 30 miles per hour

Invisibility, 1-minute cool down after use.

Night vision, at will

Warning: This sword is sentient. As it grows in power it will attempt to take over the individual wielding it. As its the ability to grow in power is infinite this sword will take over any entity that wields it over time. Base chance is 1% per +1 weapon – the Willpower of the person soulbound to it.

Cost: 1,000,000,000 credits.

I have to say I wasn’t expecting to find a sword like this for sale. Also, it looked like most people wouldn’t be able to use it until the Ambient Magic reached level 10 which I’m guessing is when the level 100 creatures would be out. I was pretty sure that if I was using the sword it would be just fine, I paid for it, accepted the Soulbinding request, and placed it in my storage.

The next item was a shocker

Capstone (Limit 1 per customer per world.)

This item when placed prevents all Monster Summoning Obelisks within 100 miles from spawning monsters for 24 hours. After which the item returns to its holder. The item has a cool-down of 24 hours before it can be used again. Note: it does not remove monsters from the area it only prevents monsters from being respawned in the area.

Cost: 10,000,000,000 credits

That was incredibly awesome, but the next item was a game-changer

Sanctuary Obelisk, with Modifications (Limit 1 per customer per world at any time.)

You may create your own safe zone. Once placed this is permanent. Though it can be removed by the owner and a new one purchased, NO REFUNDS.

Radius 100 feet

Coward Debuff added after 8 hours

Modifiers

10,000 credits per addition 100 foot radius

1,000,000 credits per +1 Mile radius (Maximum 25 miles)

10,000 Coward Debuff added after 9 hours.

Double cost for each additional hour.

327,680,000 credits, Coward Debuff is not added to anyone in the Safe Zone

1,000,000 Syndicate Store Upgrade. This upgrade adds a Syndicate store to your safe space.

I spent 353,680,000 million credits to get the 25-mile radius, no Coward Debuff, and the Syndicate Store.

There was only one more item in the Unique section. It was actually two items. A pair of portals that were linked. You could place one and then place the other and use them to travel anywhere on the planet. If I set one in the base I could open the other portal anywhere on the planet and get them to safety. After we’d tried to save as many as we could it would be a good way to get from deep inside the sanctuary to the edge. The set was 20,000,000 credits.

Once I’d picked the unique Items I went back to normal weapons and armor and purchased everything I could. I didn’t bother with self-repairing or soul-bound weapons or armor. I purchased as many of each weapon, piece of armor, basic spellbooks, and skill books as I could. The system maxed out at 10 of each item per purchase. I ended up spending a huge sum of money, 59,696,789,789 Credits. Some of that was tied up because of the Unlimited Ammo function on some of the weapons. The other part of the money was for the crates of normal weapons and tons of ammo I purchased. Norad wouldn’t be running out of weapons or Ammo any time soon. I just smiled.

I left the shop very happy with a relatively full personal storage. As I stepped out a couple more people had shown up, cowering in fear. I opened a portal to Norad, lead them through, and close it. Once I was sure they were being taken care of I portal to the entryway into the tunnel leading into the Mountain and looked at the guard line that’s been set up. Off in the distance, I see a huge man, probably a Giant of some sort, at least 25 feet high walking towards the tunnel entrance. The soldiers look at me, look at the giant and look like they’re going to bolt.

“Hold on guys I’ve got this,” I said as I pull out the Sanctuary Obelisk set it down, and activate it. As soon as the sanctuary obelisk is activated the giant disappears with a loud pop as a prompt appears.

You have entered the safe Zone of Johnathan Bennard.

There is no maximum time allowed in this Safe Zone.

You may stay here as long as you like.

Note: Safe Zone is set to Default.

Note: All Monster Summoning Obelisks within the radius of this Safe Zone have been deactivated until Safe Zone is removed.

Note: any monsters that were within the radius of this Safe Zone have been teleported up to 25 miles outside the safe zone randomly.

Note: This Safe Zone possesses a 24/7 Syndicate Shop. This free upgrade comes as a bonus to there being no “Coward” debuff added to residents that reside here.

Note: This Safe Zone belongs to Johnathan Bennard.

I reviewed how far a 25-mile radius extended in my head, that should have cleared out Colorado Springs but didn’t have enough range to include Pueblo. At least Norad and Colorado Springs were safe now. I made my way inside to find the Admiral. About a half-hour later I finally get to him behind all the checkpoints and jumpy military personnel.

“Admiral, I have some armor and weapons for everyone.”

“Looks like you also made this area a Safe Zone. How long will that last?”

“Until I remove it. If I do I’ll have to purchase it again. Also, each person may only have one otherwise I would have bought enough to cover the whole planet.”

“Okay, this will come as some much-needed good news. Did you say something about armor and weapons? He asked”

“Yeah, let’s walk down to the Armory”

We walked down to the Armory and I pulled out all the weapons I’d purchased for everyone else. “I was able to purchase 50 handguns, 50 Submachine guns, 50 Assault Rifles, and ten M134 Miniguns with harnesses. I’m keeping one M134 Minigun and two of each of the others. I’m taking two of the Berettas, two of the P90s, and two of the AR-15s. All with the unlimited ammo feature.

“What about ammo?” he asked.

“Didn’t I say, 20% of the weapons I picked up are magical, they have unlimited ammo. Well, it’s not unlimited but the clips refill at a rate of 1 round per second magically so effectively unlimited for the pistol. The SMGs and the Assault Rifles may take a minute or two to reload but they could probably go forever with one 3-round burst every 3 seconds. The miniguns can fire for a full minute before it runs out of ammo, I can’t wait to try that one out.” I said as we came up to the Armory and I started pulling out the guns I was leaving there and the ammo for the non-magical weapons.)

As I switched to spell books and skill books the admiral asked, “What are those?”

These Admirals are the game-changers. I was only able to get one of each basic spell book type and a couple of skills. One of the skill books I’ll be using myself…” As I thought about what I was doing then started returning the books to my storage space.

“What are you doing?”

“I was going to leave these books here but that kind of temptation isn’t healthy. And it definitely wouldn’t be healthy for anyone stupid enough to steal from me so I’m going to hold onto them

“If you’ve seen anyone cast a spell or know of anyone that is extremely intelligent, keep an eye on them and send them to me next time I’m back. Right now though we have 25 Square miles of a city that we can spread out into the help the people there and also fill up with more people as needed. I think we can safely assume that those sailors that were on your subs and small ships are stranded if they’re not dead. I think we should head down to the situation room, get me some coordinates, and try to save as many soldiers as we can. It’ll make enforcing martial law hear a lot easier.”

“Sounds about right, let’s go!”

We walked back to the command section, and I found a kindred spirit and a young Lieutenant named Kimberly Anderson. It had been her duty to keep track of all the boats. The reason she’d been given that duty was because she had a Photographic memory much like mine. We talked for a bit as she pointed out the last known location of every ship and sub she could remember from the charts while the Admiral and I watched.

“Alright Admiral, I’m going to tackle the small boats in deep seas or cold climates first. Once I get them done I’ll hit the ships closer to land. I’m going to save the Aircraft Carriers for last. That will give you enough time to start getting housing set up in Colorado Springs. I’m going to leave all that logistics to everyone here, “I paused for a moment while I checked my Personal Interface and looked at the Safe Zone tab finding what I wanted before I continued. “Admiral, please make it very clear to the President that this is my safe zone. With a thought, I can revoke anyone’s right to be here. If anyone attacks or hurts anyone their access is automatically removed, I have no control over that. They will be randomly teleported out of the Safe Zone and prevented from reentry until I remove the debuff ‘loner.’ It looks like anyone that attacks anyone else in a sanctuary can get that status too but it will automatically fall off after 48 hours. In this Sanctuary though, if you get that status it sticks, it doesn’t fall off and you can’t enter any safe zones again until it’s done. I wonder why that wasn’t part of the announcement. Anyone that fought with anyone in any of the safe zones in the last almost 6 hours won’t be able to enter a safe zone for a while. That might be a death sentence.” I thought about the ramification then looked at the Admiral, “We either all work together to save as many as we can or they can be forced to go off on their own. Now I’m off”

I teleported to the incoming portal area and found a place for one of the portal pairs I’d purchased. I wanted an area where two portals could be opened side by side. I found the officer in charge of handing new arrivals and let them know that very shortly more military personnel would be arriving and to keep that area clear of people. They should be receiving orders about what to do with the new people from Admiral Ainsworth shortly.

I checked my personnel Interface. I was going to have to sit down and figure out this new leveling system. I was now Grade 2, Level 8, HP 63, Stamina 900, and 1,800 mana which is what I really wanted to know. My mana regen was at 16 per second allowing me to get all my mana back in about 2 minutes. Teleport was prohibitive. I’d been able to open Portals based on range categories instead of per mile like teleport. Short Range, up to 100 miles had been 100 mana. 101-500 miles had been 200 mana. 501-1000 miles had been 300 mana which is what I’d been sticking to. 1,001-2,000 miles was 400 mana and 2,001-4,000 miles was 500 mana. 4001 – 8000 miles jumped up to 1,000 mana. I could jump farther but I wasn’t worried about that yet. Once opened each portal only required 1 mana per second for upkeep which meant I could hold open 16 portals if I wanted to and still gain mana back. I might not be able to get everywhere on the globe in one jump and be able to jump back immediately but I could do two jumps and two jumps back and not use up all my mana. As fast as I was leveling I should be able to portal wherever I needed to go. Teleporting longer distances would come later.

I opened my first portal to a submarine that was relatively close to home. The Minneapolis-St Paul fast attack nuclear submarine was about 200 miles off the east coast of the United States. I opened a portal one mile above the Atlantic Ocean at the target location, activate my fly spell, and stepped through. I closed the portal and looked down. It wasn’t incredibly hard to find the sub, There was a lot of splashing going on as tentacles reached up and held onto the sub, trying to take it under. Hoping there was actually an incorporeal state that would allow me to phase through solid matter I flew towards the sub and willed myself to become insubstantial. 50 mana disappeared and 10 mana per second started to take hold. My mana regen was able to keep up both that cost and my fly spell. As I came close to the sub one of the tentacles reached out and passed through me just as I phased through the outer hull of the submarine. I made my way to the command deck and stood in front of the Captain, then moved so my back was to one o the consoles as the captain asked.

“Who the hell are you?” the captain asked.

“Help, Admiral Ainsworth sent me. Are you dead in the water?”

“Yes, we’ve got nothing and something is taking us down.”

Just as he said that the deck shifted under me. And I floated to compensate. Then dropped by corporealness and fly and landed on the deck. “Captain, I can open a portal for you to Norad. We’re regrouping the military there.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“Like this,” I said as I opened a portal anchoring it to the deck against the wall beside me. “I can hold this portal open for you until the hull cracks and water starts coming through then I have to close it, we can’t put the ocean in Norad. Give the order Captain,” I said as I stepped through the portal.

I watched as sailors came to the command deck and made their way through the portal. It took 30 minutes to clear the sub. Sailors rushed through the status board turned red as compartments started to flood. Luckily everyone had been making their way forward so no sailors were lost, though this might be playing out differently with other subs. Finally, the Captain stepped through and I closed the portal.

The Captain looked around then looked at me, “We really are in Norad aren’t we?”

“Yes Captain, you are.

“Thank you…what should I call you?” he asked

“Just call me Adam, it’s what I go by now.”

“Okay Adam, Thank you is there anything I can do?”

“Yes, I need you to stay here while I head off to other ships and try to save their crews. Right now I’m the only one that can and as I’m sure you noticed this is a safe zone. Once we get the next captain, he’ll stay and we’ll keep doing this. I figure the easiest way is for you to tell me which captains you know so I can open a portal you can tell them to move their asses and we can’t see if we can empty their boats faster than you. What do you say?”

“Let’s get to it.!”

For the next seven days, I help evacuate the boats. When I needed a break I’d try to find the carriers and use the portals I’d bought so they could leave the ship. Then I’d catch a nap next to the portal in Norad, that way if something happened I could go through and grab the other portal, and even if I went down with the ship I’d be fine. I’d also use those breaks to head down to the mess and conjure foodstuffs for the kitchen in quantity and pass out the spell and skill books I’d purchased. I found out the Admiral had been putting together teams to head out and clear monsters. They’d started with pueblo and worked there way along the major roads to other cities. He had made sure to send out teams with the unlimited ammo weapons, the M134 miniguns making short work of anything they ran into. They were getting the world out that Colorado Springs was a safe place to be. I watched, knowing that it was a good start but also knowing for this one victory the world was losing a lot.

I tried not to think about all the people that were being slaughtered all over the world but I knew for humanity to have a chance I had to save as many as I could. The boats would have been isolated and could be sealed against predators. Plus they were military, they should be used to following orders and moving out fast. The last ship I helped evacuate was being sucked into a giant whirlpool in the middle of the Pacific. I couldn’t see what was below the ship but a whirlpool that was big enough to sink a carrier? I’d used the portals I bought and also conjured four that I maintained so we could get the crew of 5,000 off before it sank to the bottom of the Pacific.

The President still wanted to talk to me and the world was still crazy. Right now that didn’t matter though, seven days of saving over to 120,000 sailors had worn me out. I made my way to the sleeping area, found a dark corner, and went to sleep for a full 8 hours.