Nightmare Realm Summoner

Purple-blue letters shimmered across the screen before Alex, taking shape into the list of Mythic Boons that Rhyss had singled out for him to take a look at. There were a lot less of them than there had been of the Legendary options. That didn't come as much of a surprise. He only had a single Boon to spend, so the offers he had to pick from would be a lot more limited.

Necrolightning Arc Dome - 1

Sky Render Cannon Blueprints - 1

Warped Embassy - 1

Armageddon Gate Blueprints - 1

Shadowsteel Armory - 1

The difference in quality between the Legendary Boons and the Mythic Boons was obvious even just from their naming. Alex nearly choked on his own saliva as he read through the options before him.

Sure, judging a book by its cover might not have been the smartest move, but there was a reason books had covers — and these options sounded ridiculously powerful. He didn't even have the slightest idea as to what the hell Necrolightning even was. It just sounded badass.

"Holy shit," Alex said, running a hand through his hair. "What are these? Do they just have really cool names for no reason? It feels completely unfair that a town just gets to… start out with something like these."

"You achieved 200% completion on your trial, managing to draw a drop of blood from your trial's overseer. That is not a trivial accomplishment," Rhyss said with a shrug of his shoulders. "The System rewards challenge. That goes in both ways."

Alex swallowed and read back over his options. Rhyss definitely wasn't doing anything to temper his expectations. It sounded like the advisor was agreeing that his options were ridiculously powerful. And if someone like Rhyss thought that these were strong, then they were even stronger than Alex was thinking. He swallowed heavily.

Then a thought struck him. Alex's eyes narrowed.

"Hold on. These are crazy strong. All of them sound completely unfair… and I spent one of my Mythic Boons getting you."

"Correct," Rhyss said. There was more than a little smugness in his words. "And it was the wisest choice you made today."

Alex grunted. "How many total Mythic options would I have had before you filtered them down?"

"Three hundred thousand, four hundred and fifty four. That would have been the number you would had time to read through before the time duration to establish your Town ran to its limit and you were unable to read any more of them."

And Rhyss had narrowed that down to five.

Alex coughed into his fist. "Right. Picking you was definitely the right move. And I don't suppose you'd be willing to give me any suggestions on these five? Or can you not do that?"

"I am incapable of making decisions for you. As I am now, the only thing I can do is give information and attempt to ensure you are aware of the consequences of any town-related choices you make."

As you are now? So that means Rhyss can somehow do more at some point? Maybe I can upgrade him or something. Not something to worry about right now, but definitely good to know. I'll keep that in mind.

"Right. Figured. In that case… what is Necrolightning?"

"A necrotic form of electrical energy. The Necrolightning Dome is a very effective array that is used by a number of top-tier towns across the Infinium. The array forms a dome over the top of your town, effectively protecting it from most arial threats. Given the stage of your world, I would deduce that there is no living creature that would be able to penetrate it for at least a year, if not longer. And even then — it would prove immensely difficult."

Complete arial supremacy? Goddamn. Also worth noting there's a good chance the Region Boss is some form of flying monster. Obviously there's no way to know that for sure, but the Field Boss could fly so I can't ignore the possibility.

Still, if this thing is mostly effective against flying threats, I'd imagine it's going to fall a lot shorter against ground-based ones.

"Can it defend against other kinds of enemies?" Alex asked.

"Not effectively."

That answers that.

"What about the Sky Render cannon?"

"A very powerful energy cannon. It lives up to its name. In terms of sheer destructive force, it is probably at the top of the list."

"And where does it get the energy to operate? Is that part of the cannon, or do people have to run it manually?"

"The latter," Rhyss confirmed. "Though it can be passively charged at times when it is not in operation to have power stored for fights."

Interesting. Definitely a good option, but it's also worth remembering that I'm only getting the blueprints if I choose this one. We'd still have to actually make the damn cannon. That would take weeks. And, no matter how strong it is, it won't do me any good if my town gets squished by the System in a week. I still want to know all my options before I make any choices, though.

"What about the other blueprints? The Armageddon Gate?"

"An energy source. It draws power from chaotic energy throughout the Infinium and converts it to usable energy for your town. As power sources go, this is one of the better ones. It is also particularly volatile, making it very effective for offensive weapons. I would not recommend using it for any buildings or purposes that would allow the energy to flow directly into your people."

So something like this would be a great combo if I got a Sky Render Cannon or the like. Good to know. Also not worth choosing yet. Blueprints for an energy source won't help me.

"I see," Alex said. "And the last two? The Shadowsteel Armory and the Warped Embassy?"

"The armory is a building that grants you access to a specialized blacksmith. Shadowsteel is a named world in the Infinium most known for their competent smiths, so if you are planning to invest into effective weaponry and armor, this would be an apt choice."

"Hold on," Alex said with a frown. "Named world? What's that?"

"Certain worlds in the Infinium reach the requirements set to be granted a name. I cannot reveal more information than that at this time."

"Something tells me that Shadowsteel didn't just happen to be a planet of blacksmiths before it got its name," Alex said dryly. "So it's accomplishment based or something?"

Rhyss just stared at him. It didn't look like the advisor had any plans of budging from his no-speaking stance.

Alex waved his hand and quashed his curiosity for the time being. "Fine, fine. Sorry. And the Embassy thing?"

A small frown pulled at Rhyss' lips. "I… don't know."

"What? Isn't knowing basically your whole job?"

"An Advisor is not some omniscient being. I know what I know… but I would like to believe that I have a very extensive understanding of most town-related things. The System did not assign me as a Mythic boon because it found the idea amusing. I earned that title. The reason I selected this Boon is because I do not know of it. I have no information about anything by the name of a Warped Embassy."

"But it's a Mythic Boon. That means it's got to be pretty good, right?"

"Hypothetically. It is up to you. I cannot offer up conjecture. That is beyond the bounds of what I am capable of aiding you with at this point. All I am currently capable of doing is providing information."

Ugh. The System limitations are so damn annoying. Then again, I guess they're the same things that keep the Outworlders from just rolling up with the full strength of their families and completely murdering everyone.

…unfortunately I can't give the System too much credit for that, as it is also the reason the Outworlders were allowed to show up in the first place. Buggers.

Alex blew out a short breath and shook his head. The Warped Embassy wasn't a complete wild card. The hint as to its purpose was in its name. In particular, his attention was caught be the first word.

Warped. Explore new worlds at empire

"Is it from the Mirrorlands?" Alex wondered aloud. "And if it is… would an Embassy maybe somehow allow me to establish some sort of connection that keeps the town from getting destroyed in a week?"

Rhyss didn't respond. Answers to Alex's musings probably would have been taken as conjecture. There wasn't anyone else to lend their ear — they were all frozen outside of the Town Hall, waiting for him to finish his selections and finalize the town's creation.

"Damn," Alex muttered. He looked back over the options. The cannon was very tempting, but it wasn't the actual cannon he was being offered. It was blueprints, and those wouldn't help him anytime soon. An energy source also sounded incredible, but it was definitely a more long-term selection. The Necrolightning Arc Dome also sounded potentially useful for this upcoming fight, but only if the boss actually tried to fly right into their town. It was too much of an if to bet on.

He would have been a lot more amiable to the Shadowsteel Armory, but it sounded like it was basically a merchant outpost for blacksmiths. He already had a merchant lined up. Even if these were better, Alex doubted they'd be able to afford anything that much better than what Finley had.

And then there was this mystery option. There was a pretty good chance it was connected to the Mirrorlands. But if it wasn't… well, it would do something. It was a Mythic Boon, after all. There was a chance it would give him a way to directly fight against the Region Boss. The System certainly hadn't made it easy for him to find a cheap way out of the fight — and after the immense amount he'd spent getting Rhyss, Alex doubted the Advisor would steer him wrong.

He chewed his lower lip in thought, but after just a minute of mulling over everything, it struck Alex that he'd already made his decision.

"Have you chosen?" Rhyss asked, noticing the change in his eyes. "It is an important one."

"I'm more than aware of that," Alex said with a chuckle. "Which is why I'm going to do things the same way I always do. The whole overthinking things and weighing the detailed benefits… that isn't my style. That's Claire."

"Your style?" Rhyss repeated, his head tilting to the side.

"Yeah." Alex grinned. "That shit's a pain in the ass, man. I really can't be bothered. There's no shot I've lived through the apocalypse for this long just to turn into some contemplative genius. I'm going with the cool option."

"And that is?"

"The Warped Embassy," Alex said. "If you don't know what it is, then it's got to do something neat. And hey, the System rewards challenge, right?"

"Making a blind choice is not a challenge."

Alex just shrugged.

Then he pressed his finger into Warped Embassy, selecting the option from the screen. There was a soft pop as the option grayed out. Then the screen vanished entirely, leaving him alone in the room with Rhyss.

A buzz of energy raced across Alex's skin and made his hair stand on end. Tremors shook the building around him and he stumbled, nearly losing his balance, as trails of black smoke started to pool on the floor.

They rose up like the tendrils of some eldritch beast, winding together behind the counter next to Rhyss. Pulses of energy rolled off the twisting smoke and drove into Alex's chest. They fought to push his body back and the air from his lungs.

And then, as quickly as it had started, the energy vanished with a loud hiss. It was sucked into the center of the twisting mass, condensed into a single, pitch-black sphere about the size of a baseball. Twisting lines of silver ran across the sphere's surface, winding into its depths before vanishing in the darkness.

"Your core is complete," Rhyss said passionlessly, indicating the floating orb. "Your choices are finalized. Once you touch it, your Town Ability will be revealed and the initialization of your town will be complete."

Alex approached the orb and the electric energy buzzing across his skin intensified until all of his hair stood on end. It was like standing next to a lightning rod. He swallowed.

Then he set his palm on the orb.