[Boot Sequence Initiated…]
[Core Connection - Confird.]
[Mana Stream - Confird.]
[Mapping Module - Confird.]
[Local Energy Signature - Confird.]
[Lightkeeper Access - Confird.]
[User_ID: [Alpha_Tester_ID_000000000] Authentication - Confird.]
[...Loading.]
[Welco to the Alpha v0.1 Lighthouse Status System \\New User\\]
[Please Send Any Thoughts or Feedback to Representative Marcus Rollins.]
“Hm.” Coop grunted, furrowing his brows in concentration as he followed along with the console ssages.
He was sitting in the sand beneath a palm tree as he launched the initial public test of the pet project that had been occupying his mind ever since his adventure in the Ark. It was the first ti in a decade that most people would receive a notification. He wondered how many would accept.
Coop had a thousand different concerns to work through before he got to the point that he was voluntarily sharing a new system. Mostly, he figured he was biased toward the whole process of increntally growing with clear numbers in the first place. By making the entire thing optional, and breaking it up into smaller pieces, he addressed most of the issues he identified himself.
Still, even after the years of trial and error, he was amazed that his control of mana had eventually translated into sothing so tangible. Climbing the tower and clumsily interfacing with the Ark without access to the system had slowly revealed how such a thing was possible. Putting it into practice by essentially programming the civilization shard was another matter entirely.
“Let’s see how it looks this ti.” He muttered, closing his eyes and tilting his head back to let the sun land on his face before sending a ntal prompt calling for his status.
[Status]User_ID[Alpha_Tester_ID_000000000]
Power Level[ERROR: Drift Detected] (##,###)Class DesignationRevenant \\ Mistwalker - Abyssal Harbinger - Wanderer \\ [DEBUG: Multi]Mana Affinity[ERROR: Instability Detected]Aptitude RankIcon of Humanity
Body5,000 [Tap to Expand]Mind12,000 [Tap to Expand]CoreStage 3
Mastered Abilities[Tap to Expand]
Achievents[Tap to Expand]
Coop sighed at all the rough edges. For sothing ant to be so simple, it was surprisingly hard to process the information flowing through mana and have it displayed the way he wanted. There were too many variables between the individuals it was ant to organize.
How was he supposed to scale an entire level system with such a broad range? He had borrowed a lot of ideas from the previous system, tapping into so of the exact asurents through the faction itself and tweaking them for his purpose, but he still couldn’t get it to properly gauge his own status. His other testers had significantly fewer errors, making him the outlier, which was all the more frustrating. More than anything, he wanted to admire his own gains and visualize his continued progression.
“What a pain.” He mumbled into the ocean breeze.
The main ‘system’ was simply a personal status window. Coop was trying to keep things as uncomplicated as possible so that soone like him, seeing everything for the first ti, would still understand what it was displaying. Other more dynamic features would mostly be delegated to the guilds that were in charge of specific tasks. For example, the Adventurer Guild could use the status system as a foundation to designate appropriate quests, guide expeditions, and assign rewards. Since they would be responsible for the surface, it was the kind of communication network that would keep them organized. It would be similar to how they had been using the faction interface before the Eradication Protocol, but built from the ground up for their purposes.
They had several pools of experience to tap into when it ca to implenting different functions. Grandmaster Artisans like Balor, Garod, and Erasimus Doomthread had their own opinions when it ca to material quality and how to asure them. The forr Prison Warden turned Warmaiden, Eleza, had implented an entire rit tracking system that could independently gauge intent when she was in charge of Empress City’s dungeon. Even people like Derek had developed robust ladder systems for the parties delving into the mana well.
Then, there were all the residents of Ghost Reef that had begun to bypass the system and tap into mana with their own strategies during the assimilation. Gibson, Madison, and Charlie were essentially programming mana in basic ways that had evolved into the current status system. In the end, it made sense to open the testing to all mbers of the Lighthouse. The rest of the Lighthouse system would be a collaborative effort. Coop was just laying the foundation, as he had done for the sanctuary that had beco Ghost Reef. If all went well, branches that ford from the basic start could provide everything from an interface for their chasm teleportation network, to outlining specific guidance for individual developnt, to use in the burgeoning mana-tech projects.
Coop had tried to give their status system a more precise power system than the previous. Rather than the arbitrary ‘levels’ that were calculated by a manufactured experience count, the new power level system was more a asurent of personal mana itself. Mana was the foundation of power as they understood it, and unlike the previous system, they had no reason to obfuscate that fact from their mbers. The idea was to empower those within the Lighthouse as much as possible. Muddling in their understanding of strength would work against their goals.
Power level was essentially combining most of what had been encompassed within class levels, profession levels, and attributes in the previous system, then adding on almost everything they could think of that might impact combat potency. It was split into two asurents. One was a permanent, base power level, that showed up as an error for Coop. The other was the current dynamic power level that could at least give Coop a five-digit prediction. Splitting it in this way would account for the entire range of soone’s combat strength. For example, temporary buffs, personal domains, consumables, and equipped gear could all dynamically change soone’s power level and would therefore be reflected in the dynamic number.
It was no longer possible to ‘allocate’ stats. Instead, they developed on their own, through the actions of the user and were accounted for in the base power level. Training would be properly reflected in stats, whether it was tied with kills or not. Monster kills might earn automatic rewards from the faction instead, depending on funds and incentives.
Coop was a bit sad they would lose the monts of satisfaction that ca from specifically assigning the attributes, so one of things that he was still working on was a thod to have the growing stats prompt the user to acknowledge them. All he needed was an interface elent and they would get a visual celebration to affirm their progress. Sothing similar was in the works for power level increases. Even if they could figure out how to do the spotlights that the previous system had applied, Coop was hoping to keep the automatic comndations private, but still satisfying.
The many guilds of the Lighthouse would create their own systems for professions themselves, and instead of gaining power, the whole profession system would be segregated from combat focused asurents. They would concentrate on the factors that made sense for becoming an artisan of whichever profession they represented. That ant anyone could develop any profession, and wouldn’t be limited to just one. Proficiency and expertise would be rewarded with higher ranks and the Lighthouse itself would recognize mastery. If soone had an interest in a specific job, they could register with a guild and receive a system that guided them through the process of getting started.
Coop was still struggling with the class designations, not wanting to lose what the previous system had shown them. The problem was that, with the way his system was reading things, paths actually evolved the classes, making it more complicated than a single permanent appointnt. On the one hand, that gave people more flexibility than they had before, but on the other, it was confusing for those who had already progressed through the path system, like himself. They might need to build an entire sub-class system just to accommodate the evolving nature of their skills.
Through quests, they could even guide the developnt of new paths at appropriate tis, but it would be yet another massive project that might be best delegated to currently non-existent combat guilds. It was an idea that was being actively promoted by Ledwidge and certain battle-junkies that had been grinding as much as Coop during the assimilation.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Mana affinity was sort of a test of aptitude. It was almost like the natural style or way of defining the inclinations of the user. Everyone seed to be born with one, but it could change and evolve depending on their experiences. That seed to be the reason they could unlock further affinities as they developed their builds in the previous system. It was crazy that he couldn’t even get his own mana affinity to display properly. The whole thing was basically running on mana that was identical to his own, but things got blurry after he continued to advance without any system at all.
“What’s up with that?” He whispered, wondering where to even start.
Aptitude rank basically delineated tiers of proficiency, combining them with the boss rank designations that had appeared throughout the assimilation. If mana affinity was the flavor of soone’s skills, aptitude rank was their mastery with mana itself.
The attribute section was where the incrental progress would be found. Body was all physical stats, with even more nuance than the previous set revealed, and Mind was all magic type stats. He had added half a dozen finer asurents than just Strength and Agility so that more specific training was possible. Not only would it allow people to address specific weaknesses, but it would also give more opportunities for the tangible rewards that ca from perceptible progression.
Core was basically a asurent of potential mana control. Over the years, Coop had been diligently practicing with his aura, eventually developing his own mana core the way he had seen in the most advanced monsters. It wasn’t exactly a physical organ, but instead a structural way to organize the mana under their authority. It didn’t seem to exactly correlate with aptitude rank, aning soone could lack a core and still reach the highest ranks, but they would be fundantally weaker than soone with a more advanced core and that would be reflected in the power level of each example.
The core went up in tiers as they gained more control, with stage three representing the solidified aura that Coop could wield with his mana pool. It was still an extrely new field of study, and it wasn’t clear what the limits would be, but it seed like it would open up a whole new avenue of progression for the mbers of the Lighthouse, and was exactly the sort of thing the previous system had deliberately excluded. None of the alien residents could provide their wisdom and were instead just as new to the concepts as the rest of humanity. Ironically, it seed like Coop had actually dragged cultivation into the system when he was specifically anti-cultivation, but if that’s what it took to see his power level go up, he could deal with it.
Instead of choosing skills, abilities were created by the user. Once one was mastered, the system would provide a na the sa way it designated classes. While it ant that anyone could practice enough and teach themselves new skills, it wasn’t so easy in actuality.
The school systems that were developing within Ghost Reef were delving into several different thods to ease people into learning the practical skills surrounding mana. Coop’s first skills were Retribution and Salvation, but without the original system he never would have been able to cast them on his own. There needed to be introductory skills that anyone could get started with before they innovated on their own.
While that ant that mbers of the Lighthouse might be a bit slower to get started compared to those in the previous system, they would have a better foundation to customize their builds as they developed. It was all the more reason to maintain the sanctuary that Ghost Reef had beco. It would enable them to flourish beyond what the old system would have allowed.
And finally, Achievents took the sa role as titles had in the previous system. They were almost exactly the sa, even providing so tangible benefits where possible through the faction itself. The one difference was that they weren’t as exclusive as they had been before, otherwise Coop would end up collecting them all for himself. Others could repeat achievents to earn the rewards and prove they were worthy even if they ca from later generations.
Then, on top of simply recording and displaying stats, the system could also compare the overall ‘base power level’ with other mbers. In other words, Coop had rebuilt so leaderboards, but a simple comparison no longer really made sense, since not everyone was at the sa starting point, so there were further subcategories that would help break up the masses.
[Lighthouse Overall Leaderboard]1.User 000000000[Drift Detected]2.User 000000012(12,096)3.User 000000015(10,563)4.User 000000007(7,120)5.......
Sohow, Coop was at the top of the current leaderboards, with Vronk, Caisalya, and then Lyriel hanging onto their absolutely massive head starts against every other mber of the Lighthouse. That was what he ant by the leaderboards not really making as much sense as the ones that tracked their progress in the assimilation. It would only get less representative as a way to gauge progress as ti went on, when people who were brand new to mana were compared to soone like Coop after he had untold ages to get ahead.
[Lighthouse Group Leaderboard (Group 1)]1.User 000000000[Drift Detected]2.Charlie is Testing Status(5,212)3.Hai Yun Alpha v0.1(5,075)4.Tzultacaj(4,901)5.Platinum Vacation Mode(4,873)6.......
Group 1 was basically the old global leaderboards, but since he didn’t recreate the previous levels, comparing them to the ones they rembered from before the Eradication Protocol also didn’t make too much sense. It was just one of the early iterations of what would surely beco a more refined system in the future.
Frankly, he was amazed that it had all even been possible. It was mostly thanks to retaining the fully upgraded civilization shard, otherwise Coop would have only been able to project the status on himself. Thanks to the shard processing his commands, it would apply to mbers of the Lighthouse and its established territory, rather than riding along with mana itself, but they could expand their coverage with mana pylons if they needed to. Taking over the galaxy the way the previous system had would require an array created by sothing like the Arks, spread across every planet. Since that wasn’t the goal, they didn’t need to explore such drastic asures. It was good enough as long as it continued through the mbers of the Lighthouse specifically.
Instead of aiming for grand conquests, they could focus on using the civilization shard as a sort of processor for reading mana while they got themselves more organized and prepared for remaining secure in the future. Basic functions would obviously help them in combat and more importantly, improve upon themselves before it got to that point.
Coop shoved himself off the ground and wiped the sand off his butt, scanning for his next test subject. Surprisingly, after all the ti since the defense of Ghost Reef, the actual island on the surface had still not been redeveloped. Other than the port, the entire island was empty.
Everyone was deferring to Coop, Jones, and Jett to see what they would do, but Coop was happy to sleep right on the beach when the weather permitted. Jett was spending most of her ti patrolling through hundreds of layers of treat-providing underground layers and making sure her subjects were content. And Jones was the de facto leader of the surveys being conducted on the Ark with plans to extend his research across the surface.
Coop wasn’t even sure what they needed, from a settlent standpoint, given how almost everything had been redistributed through the rest of the territory. Balor’s Tower was underground, and all the residences were more protected if they were away from the surface. While they could construct the ultimate fort, he wasn’t convinced it would be necessary. He supposed they needed sothing to cap off the underground layers.
While imagining a rebuild of the walls, he found his target, and tried using his new system to read an aura.
Ancient Defender Echo(Power Level 15)
“Hey, hey,” Coop greeted the monster with a smile, “at least that works as it should.”
He wasn’t sure how he would test the other, universal language ability, but he had already heard the reports that just being a mber of the Lighthouse ant that it worked. He still wanted to know if running it through his system broke anything. That would probably co up in the feedback.
Coop cast Retribution and manifested his ethereal spear. He wasn’t about to start a fight, he just wanted to check its stats.
Summoned Ethereal Spear(Power Level 2,500)
“Nice.” He comnted, having anticipated so errors. Finding none was an absolute win.
Then, he pumped up the density of his spear and watched as the numbers blurred before the display broke. He shrugged, thinking that was a bit too much to ask of the fledgling system. The last thing he had to test would almost certainly be worse.
Coop reached his offhand to his side and tried accessing the spatial storage provided by his system, rather than the one he had learned himself.
“Oh, it actually worked?” He caught himself by surprise, staring at a Ghost Reef Standard Issue Sword. Everyone in the Lighthouse was allotted so space, though it would take a certain level of proficiency to easily access it without help. He inspected it as well.
Ghost Reef Standard Issue Sword(Power Level 27)
Coop was nodding to himself in satisfaction, happy to get readings at all. Seeing the notifications was weirdly comforting. They were a concrete example of the network that Ghost Reef had established. Maybe the tangible connection with the community of people they had ford was more crucial than he had thought.
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