Grand Game 585: Rifts and More

Unsurprisingly, the first Game alert was the one describing my level gains. 

You and Ghost have reached level 282!

For achieving rank 28, you have been awarded 1 additional attribute point and 1 Class point.

I whistled softly. Ghost and I had advanced appreciably. We’d gained a whole nine levels. And while I expected that some of the gains were a result of the nagas I had killed and the lesser stygians Ghost had slaughtered, slaying the void tree itself likely accounted for six of our new levels.

A worthy reward on its own, I thought in satisfaction as I opened the next message.

Your tooth and claw (shortswords) has reached rank 24, your two weapon fighting rank 22, your chi rank 21, and your deception rank 26.

Ghost’s magma maw has reached rank 16, her stygian claws rank 17, and her telepathy rank 14.

My skill gains were as expected. I was slightly disappointed that I’d not managed to raise my nether absorption to tier six, though. Since I’d hit rank twenty-eight, I had acquired another Class point, leaving me with a grand total of two. But I was loath to spend either of them on anything except advancing slaysight and void thief.

However, neither of my Class abilities were ready for upgrade—and they wouldn’t be until I took one, or both, requisite skills, namely telepathy and nether absorption, to tier six.

I sighed. Advancing my Class abilities would just have to wait. In the meantime, though, I could do something about my unspent attribute points—all thirty-two of them.

Turning my attention inward, I checked my player status and, specifically, my current attribute ranks.

Strength: 40. Constitution: 44. Dexterity: 142. Perception: 127. Mind: 188. Magic: 85. Faith: 20.

Total Attributes invested (ignoring benefits from items): 646.

I sucked in a breath through my teeth. I hadn’t considered my attribute progression in a long time, and to see how far I’d come was shocking. I had started the Game with two attribute points—two!—and now I had six hundred and forty six.

But it was not just that. 

The truly staggering part was how… different I was. Most players at my level would have three hundred and twenty attributes—ignoring any feats or traits they may have acquired along the way, that is.

I had more than twice that.

From the perspective of attributes alone, there was no doubt I was overpowered. And with my elder form, I’d gained the abilities to match. Which, I suppose, accounted for the relative ease with which I’d rampaged through the stygian Powers.

But I could not forget that the stygians were not players. They didn’t have the same advantages. And amongst other players—and Powers—I was certain to find some who were also overpowered, if hopefully, not to the same extent I was.

My drive to get stronger had not—and could not—wane, I knew. Especially not when considering my next probable destination after this.

Still shaking my head in rueful disbelief at my player growth, I left off further musings and focused on the attributes themselves. The question now was which to upgrade.

Not Perception. I’d taken it as far as I needed to for the time being. And not Dexterity either. Most of its abilities were not ready for upgrade yet.

Which left Mind.

I had two Mind abilities ready for upgrade to the elite tier. And then too, I had enough points to take the attribute itself to rank two hundred—which was something I’d been keen to do for some time now. 

 Mind it is.

Reaching out to the Adjudicator, I willed my intent to the Game.

Your Mind has increased to rank 220. Other modifiers: +12 from items. Available ability slots: 34.

Congratulations, Michael! You have accomplished the feat: Mentalist. Requirements: advance your Mind attribute to rank 200. 

As a reward for your achievement, you have gained the trait: Mentalist. This is a generic trait all players receive on attaining this milestone. Tier one of the mentalist trait boosts your highest Mind skill in a small but effective way. You can now also use your telepathy to communicate mind-to-mind with those who lack the skill, dropping words directly into their minds and reading their responses the same way.

I smiled. From Ceruvax and Adriel’s tutelage, I’d known to expect the feat. The exact breakdown of the resulting trait had been more in doubt. Still, I couldn’t complain about what I had received. 

While the changes effected to my telepathy skill appeared almost insignificant, they were anything but. Courtesy of the mentalist trait, I could now use my mindvoice to speak directly to any non-player—something that I was sure would come in handy in the future.

Alight, that’s that. Time to peruse the next alert.

Banishing the hovering Game message, I opened the subsequent set of notices.

The ley line between Kingdom sector 18,240 and Nethersphere sector 30,199 has been closed. You have sealed your second rift. To obtain the next rank of the Rift Defender feat, close 8 more rifts.

Sector 18,240 is no longer under assault by the nether! 

With the destruction of the ley line between sector 18,240 and the Nethersphere, the sector’s safe zone has been reestablished and the nether toxicity in the region has stopped rising. Note, the existing free-floating mists in the sector will not automatically be dispersed. Appropriate steps must be taken to see it banished.

Your task, A Place to Call Home! has been updated. You have forced the void to retreat from sector 18,240, thereby allowing its safe zone to reform. You now have 31 hours remaining to claim the sector.

Objective: Secure sector 18,240’s safe zone before your allotted time runs out to establish control of the sector. 

Mission success, I thought, grinning in pleasure. Or almost, anyway.  With the void vanquished, and the safe zone reformed, I had no doubt that Safyre was already seeing to the sector’s claiming.

Just twenty-four more hours. That’s all the time the Forerunners would need to establish a hold on the sector, and then… 

And then, my people would truly have a home to call theirs. 

Still smiling, I opened the next message.

Congratulations, Michael! The Forerunners have accomplished the feat: Rift Redeemers. Requirements: close a tier 7 rift. 

Thanks to your efforts, and that of your faction, a tier 7 rift has been sealed. A tier 7 rift is one stable enough for even stygian Powers to traverse. Your faction is the first in millennia to have closed a rift of this magnitude, and as such, all present and future members of the faction will gain the trait: rift sense.

Rift sense is a factional trait that immediately makes a faction member aware of any rifts in the sector they are in. Both the rift’s location and its tier are revealed to the player.

Note, factional traits are highly prized and are only awarded for historic achievements. Like faction membership itself, factional traits are not discernable using analyze or any other similar ability. Factional traits are not permanent. In the event that a player leaves a faction, they will lose access to the benefits derived from a factional trait.

“Factional traits,” I murmured to myself. Now, those were a surprise. Neither Ceruvax nor Adriel had made mention of them in our prior discussions, which likely meant they were exceedingly rare. As for the trait itself, its benefits were obvious, especially considering that—

An insistent buzzing interrupted my thoughts.

It was coming from another Game alert I realized, one seemingly prompted by my acknowledgment of the factional trait message. Intrigued as to why that may be the case, I let the new message unfold in my mind.

Rift sense activated.

Warning! There are currently 3 open rifts in sector 30,199.

The first rift is a tier 3 rift designated Rift-W, the second is a tier 5 rift designated Rift-Y, and the third is a tier 6 rift designated Rift-Z. The destinations of all 3 rifts are unknown.

The locations of Rift-W, Rift-Y, and Rift-Z have been added to your Logs.

Concern shot through me. There were three more rifts in this sector? And all three were active? 

Damnation! That leaves us wide open to an ambush! 

We could be assaulted from any direction—and not just from the mature tree’s nest in the south. The shock of that realization was almost enough to force me to my feet to sound the alarm. 

But then, a trio of pulses impinged on my awareness, and I settled back down.

The pulses were coming from the three newly revealed rifts, and from the sense I got of them, they were even farther away than the mature nest. 

“What’s wrong, Prime?” Ghost asked.

She’d noticed my momentary tension, I realized. “Nothing,” I mumbled back, “or nothing urgent, anyway. I just found out there are three more rifts in the sector.”

Concern washed through our bond. “Oh? Should we—” 

“There’s no immediate danger,” I assured her. “The rifts are too far. Just stay vigilant.” 

Turning my attention inward again, I pondered the Game’s warning further. As I did, I realized that the rifts in question were also smaller than the one we had just closed. That meant none of the three could discharge a stygian Power.

Well, there’s that to be grateful for. 

My eyes narrowing, I worked through the rest of the implications. Given its tier, Rift-W had to have been formed by a stygian seed, whereas Rift-Y and Rift-Z were likely the work of a pair of stygian saplings. Interesting, I mused. Now that I had time to consider the matter more calmly, I realized the three rifts were actually not of any real threat to me or the nearby brotherhood army. 

If anything, we were a threat to them.

Particularly if the mature tree didn’t suspect I knew the three rifts’ exact whereabouts. And I couldn’t see any reason why he would suspect that. I’d not gone anywhere near the other rifts, and they were all clear across the sector.

Exploring those rifts will be interesting, I decided, even as I wondered what lay on the other side of them. More undiscovered sectors?

Sadly, though, uncovering the rifts’ mysteries would have to wait. Focusing on the Adjudicator’s messages anew, I opened the next Game alert.