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TFC Chapter 62: River Pebbles
🕑 Added 2022-06-26 21:41:49 +0000 UTC“Oh, Lenia~ Welcome to this room of wonder where one of your wishes will be realized~” Enthusiastically greeting this grade 5 powerhouse he wasn’t meeting for the first time, Aven once again didn't try to hide his true nature.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, fairy,” somewhat distant and aloof, the long red-haired and blue-eyed Emma princess returned his greeting. She looked and acted exactly like anyone from the Emma imperial family should look and act.
“Hehe, it’s not the first time we’re meeting, you know? Take your ease~” Despite noticing that she didn’t seem to remember him, Aven remained easygoing about the whole thing, “I don’t know when you’ll recover from the loss of having so extensively used your innate ability, but I hope you didn’t go crazy!”
Surprisingly, during the 7th section caving, Lenia had shown up and displayed her costly but extremely worth it innate ability and climbed to the top as the person having contributed the most to the fight opposing the 5 nations against 2 grade 5 abominations.
Looking at him silently for a few seconds, she ended up apologizing, “I hadn’t recognized you, I’m sorry.”
“Well, that hurts my feelings!” Pouting for a moment, he quickly changed the subject and assumed a friendly demeanor, “Anyway, what’s the reward you want? As long as it’s in my power, I’ll make sure to deliver.”
“Self Revolving Energy Mutation Elixir,” she said the moment he asked.
“Well, here goes the 6th one for the day!” Shrugging at the mention of this reward he had already claimed 5 times, he didn’t bother with explaining that fact and just claimed another copy wordlessly.
Self Revolving Energy Mutation Elixir (Claim?)
“Now that we have a few minutes to talk, why don’t you tell me how you made yourself look so freaking cool when covered in blood?” With the materialization phenomenon starting not far, Aven transitioned to the surprise interview with a big smile on his face.
As it turned out, not even an Emma princess was spared from his future-friends probing.
And whether they wanted it or not, everyone who entered this reward room, meaning all people who proved themselves through intense battles, were added to his web of connections as basic acquaintances.
And with every addition, Aven’s plans for the after-abomination surge period became clearer and clearer.
…
Section caving after section caving, the whole Athal-manned part of the Forbidden Wall ended up being caved in progressively.
Such an intense development, having never been done to such a degree throughout the entire human era, prompted the other 4 nations to ask what was happening.
Their interactive map kept telling them the northwest wall area was both being destroyed, and dozens and dozens of purple dots vanished with this destruction, nearly simultaneously.
Faced with the overwhelmingly positive result of this strategy that should never have been used so freely, 2 opposed opinion camps naturally came to be, opposing the orthodox safer approach with this new “so many things could go wrong” approach.
This development, however, didn’t matter that much to the Athal Federation as for them, the truth of the situation was that they bet, and they won.
Despite ending up with a Forbidden Wall having lost at least 2 wall layers in the concerned areas, the grade 5 and grade 4 supers were now able to breathe and not overexert themselves far from the wall.
And as the man, or the fairy, who had forwarded this plan, used his authority to push for it, and even sacrificed his own FCP to the cause, Aven Amias’s name and his capabilities spread to more and more people.
“I think… It’s time to move on…” Lounging on a human-sized bed he had used to sleep for the last 3 cycles, Aven felt that the last week and a half had really been the paroxysm of the abomination surge.
And what followed a paroxysm was only a fading intensity.
“I’m not needed anymore, so I should focus on just grinding as much as I can the abomination surge for the remaining time there is to it,” he stated what seemed obvious to him but still needed to be said aloud for him to think it through, “I don't know if I’ll find a way to contribute so efficiently as I can now in the short term after all.”
Feeling his morning slow wits vanish the more he thought about his situation and how much more he had to do to feel like he had exploited the situation as much as it was possible to, Aven claimed his contribution reward for the previous cycle he hadn’t claimed due to feeling a bit too exhausted at that time.
Dynamic Faction Contribution Quests: Nation of Eland
…
Dynamic Contribution: 52 866 000 FCP
“52 million FCP… It didn’t really change, good?” A bit lost on judging this amount of FCP he had received not only once but twice including the previous cycle when the whole Athal section caving plan had started, he opened his shop and focused on the one thing he wanted to claim and the one item that kept him from doing so.
Faction Contribution Shop: Nation of Eland
Faction Authority: Violet Fairy
Faction Contribution Points: 89 058 733
…
Affinity Resonance Exotic Stone (24 190 000 FCP): An exotic stone originating from space capable of enhancing one’s affinity to any energy system up to the advanced rank. Cannot create an affinity.
Exotic-Warped Liquid Fairy Energy (69 489 000 FCP): Energy maintained in an extraordinarily unstable liquid state by virtue of a special container made of extremely rare exotic materials warping reality around them. Can be absorbed to temporarily drastically increase one’s talent in energy cultivation. Repeated consumption may bring definitive increases in energy cultivation talent.
“3 should be enough, maybe even 2? Or maybe I need 5…” Considering his next step, Aven once again realized that he was in pioneer territory and the knowledge he had in this field didn’t extend to the point of giving him the answer he wanted.
His considerations didn't extend that far though, he was ready to bet if he had to, if 3 affinity stones weren’t enough, he would go for 4, then 5, even 6. The description told him pushing his affinity to the advanced level was possible, so it was possible.
But the thing that kept him from doing so was that the exotic-warped liquid was only a “temporary” energy cultivation talent boost that had done something to his energy that had until now allowed it to grow at a rate of 1 grade 3 energy point per hour for 9 days straight.
His worst expectations were that it would have only lasted a few hours, sealing the fact that this item was a FCP spending trap.
His optimistic expectations had been that it would have lasted 24 hours, the time it took for what he had materialized to return to nothingness.
His otherworldly expectations had been… A few days, and in his case “a few” didn’t mean 9 days.
In the end, however, it turned out that his system had a different definition of “temporarily” than him.
“Should I do it? Yeah, I should, right? Why shouldn’t I do it?” Making up his mind, he claimed one copy of what had the potential to boost his tech energy affinity to another level.
Affinity Resonance Exotic Stone (Claim?)
The materialization phenomenon lasted a few minutes before a familiar-looking river pebble appeared in his sight and was brought to him with a bit of energy telekinesis.
“If I only need one… I’ll be frustrated,” he said as he mobilized his energy to start integrating this river pebble containing exotic properties.
A few minutes later, his status remained unchanged. So he pursued and claimed another river pebb- exotic stone.
Affinity Resonance Exotic Stone (Claim?)
Upon consuming this one, Aven felt slightly hot, but other than reminding him of how he felt after consuming 20 wonder flowers, his status still remained unchanged.
“This one is different… It’s not a wonder flower,” convincing himself, his hopes high, he claimed the last exotic stone he could with his FCP stock.
Affinity Resonance Exotic Stone (Claim?)
Same as the last 2, Aven didn’t dwell on useless ceremonial behavior and absorbed the exotic stone that disintegrated in mid-air, unveiling its true nature as an energy exotic stone the moment it touched active energy.
The hot sensation rose once again, but this time it seemed that his fairy body and energy had both reached… A threshold.
“Yes!” Feeling himself being burned alive through his intermediated energy sense, Aven celebrated joyfully. There was no way such intense feedback didn’t mean something had been reached, and he was soon proven true when the burning sensation vanished instantly a few seconds later.
Following this disappearance, he had no other idea in mind but to open his status, ignoring all the strange changes that were happening to his energy.
Aven Amias
Faction: Nation of Eland
Energy Grade: 3
Energy Cultivation: 1 498/10 000
Energy Identity: Tech
1st Energy Specialization: Undivided Infusion
Physical Talents: Fairy Body (Violet Grade), Basic Energy Furnace Cells, Basic Condensed Body, Basic Regenerating Body, Basic Inexhaustible Body, Basic Energy Immune Constitution, Basic Energy Life Constitution
Energy Talents: Fairy Energy Origin (Violet Grade), Pure Fairy Energy (Violet Grade), Fairy Affinity Resonance (Violet Grade), Advanced Tech Energy Affinity, Intermediate Energy Sense, Basic Natural Energy Growth, Basic Self Revolving Energy, Basic Seamless Energy, Basic Excitable Energy, Basic Equalizing Energy, Basic Energy Photosynthesis, Basic Compatible Energy, Sensitive Energy
Spiritual Talents: Inquisitive Spirit, Expert Knowledge Integration, Basic Tireless Spirit, Basic Armored Spirit, Basic Enhanced Awareness, Basic Spiritual Foundation
Universal Talents: Awakened Fairy Bloodline (Violet Grade), Creative Instinct, Essence Stabilizer
“It’s! Here!” Exclaiming, Aven couldn’t fake having seen the extremely eye-catching single advanced talent in his entire status.
Focusing on it, he brought its detailed description up.
Advanced Tech Energy Affinity: Your energy naturally responds to the tech energy system. Moderately increases all properties of your energy when used through the tech energy system. Moderately increase all properties of your energy cultivation when done through the cycling of tech energy.
“Well, what do we have here…” Lost for words at what the advanced level affinity had provided him, Aven could only keep a neutral face, having no way to express the ridicule of the situation as he finally gave more attention to what was happening inside him.
His grade 3 energy cultivation cycle, already boosted on every level by a trinity effect and a drastically increased talent that had opened unknown metaphysical pathways… Was simply and purely accelerating, becoming heavier, and flowed smoother.
“So that’s one of the reasons why picking a different energy system from one’s affinity ends up in lackluster supers,” deducing more from what he was presented with, Aven really didn’t know what to think.
Affinity was a talent that everyone acquired once they awakened, and it turned out that for this talent, the more it increased in level, the scarier it got.
From only increasing intensity to increasing everything, and now to increasing everything including the remotely related energy cultivation talent. The affinity talent now seemed much more important on every level compared to before.
“And it takes 4 stones to get it from basic to advanced…” Musing on the implications, he ended up daydreaming for about 10 minutes before a relatively loud explosion coming from the much-nearer front line against the abomination surge woke him up.
“Yeah, now isn’t the time to think!” Fluttering his energy wings once, he moved rapidly and escaped his quarters, intent on resuming being the most extreme and hard-working contributor of this surge.
…
With the disappearance of the high grades abominations, the Athal area was stabilized, allowing everyone, Aven included, to enjoy a much more “common” abomination surge intensity, if still a bit higher due to the majority of the abomination currents still factually leading towards where they were.
That greatly decreased intensity compared to when the wall break scenario had been much more than just a possibility granted a certain fairy all the necessary time it needed to finish the first major hurdle of its life in the most perfect manner.
Dedicating himself fully, Aven ignored the fact that his energy cultivation speed had increased from gaining 1 grade 3 energy point every hour to 1 every 40 minutes and spent his entire cycle of 66 hours and 45 minutes spent awake shooting at the abomination ocean, earning himself a total of 50 463 000 FCP before spending 5 hours sleeping.
Incomprehensibly, the Exotic-Warped Liquid Fairy Energy’s effect still didn’t show any signs of going away after 12 days of having consumed it, but as this time there were no items really worth emptying his FCP stock for, he kept everything in expectation of its effect finally vanishing.
And at the start of the next cycle, 12 days and a half, or 300 hours after consuming this extremely expensive cultivation resource, he felt relieved at his decision of not having spent his FCP as his god-like talent in energy cultivation suddenly evaporated, as if it had never existed.
Because it really had never existed.
Not willing to lose dozens of hours of divinely-boosted energy cultivation time, Aven claimed his contribution reward for half a day of effort and gained 8 640 000 FCP, bringing his total to 72 280 692 FCP, or just enough to pay for another copy of Exotic-Warped Liquid Fairy Energy priced at 69 489 000 FCP.
With his biggest worry finally resolved and another timeline expense to add to his schedule, Aven judged that it was a completely worth it expense for obvious reasons and decided to keep it for as long as he possibly could.
For the remaining 55 hours of this cycle, nothing really surprising happened and he ended up retiring to his quarters after claiming a contribution reward of 39 600 000 FCP.
Before drifting to sleep though, the part of his mind that was obsessed with having as much FCP as it could told him that something was wrong…
‘8 640 000 this morning… 39 600 000 now… That’s… 48 240 000 in total?’
“What?” Exposing his confusion aloud, Aven couldn’t find any problem with how he had contributed in destroying the abomination surge this cycle, so the problem certainly shouldn't be coming from him.
But other than him, who else could be at fault? There was only one answer. It was an answer he didn’t like, but one that would obviously end up being true as more than a month and a half had already passed since the surge had started by now.
“Sigh… I’ll find out tomorrow…” Resigning himself, he stopped thinking about this delicate subject and drifted to sleep.
The next cycle went on to last for 67 and a quarter hours, and at the end of the day where his only expense had been to keep his cultivation trinity effect permanently on, he was rewarded with… 45 999 000 FCP.
Eland as a faction was slowly but surely shifting away from the abomination surge. It wasn’t as important as before as the bulk of it had been cleared, and too much was probably going on, amplifying this growing disinterest.
“It’s time to open a new spreadsheet then, and the moment both the abomination surge and the hourly FCP yield rate stabilize… It’ll be time to go home,” asserting what he was thinking, he fetched his phone and created a new spreadsheet document where he entered both his cycle times that kept growing by 15 or so minutes each day, his earnings, and divided the 2 by each other.
This simple document would allow him to know, in correlation with what his eyes saw, when things would have calmed down enough for him to switch to a new path.
For now, though, the abomination surge wasn’t over, and a second wind event had never been out of consideration even if it had historically never happened.
With this thought in his head, Aven went to sleep, thinking more than ever about what he wanted to do once the surge ended.
…
The next cycle, after firing thousands of times into the abomination ocean and helping the Athal-manned part of the wall over the course of 67 and a half hours, Aven got the confirmation when his contribution reward amounted to “merely” 41 310 000 FCP that for Eland, the surge importance was being relegated to the background.
From yester-cycle's average hourly yield of 684 000 FCP, it had fallen to 612 000 FCP, a decrease noticeable enough for there to be no doubt anymore about what was taking place.
This information nonetheless didn’t make Aven change his schedule, he had already decided to exploit this surge to the bone, so he slept for 5 hours before going back to the front line.
67 and 3 quarters hours later, after confirming that the Exotic-Warped Liquid Fairy Energy’s effect only lasted 300 hours once again and incurring a loss of 69 489 000 FCP to renew it, he earned himself 36 585 000 FCP, which once put in his spreadsheet informed him that the average hourly yield had decreased to 540 000 FCP.
Next cycle, after contributing for 68 hours, taking down mostly grade 0, grade 1, and grade 2 abomination fodders, he was rewarded with 31 824 000 FCP… An average hourly yield of 468 000 FCP.
In the subsequent cycle, Aven observed with his own eyes how the endless ocean of abominations wasn’t really as endless as it should be.
The Athal Federation also slowly resumed its harvesting operations of grade 2 and rare grade 3 abominations, the rear supports stopped, and things stabilized everywhere.
When near the end of this cycle he saw staff going to assess the resulting damages from the trapped retreat strategy, Aven didn’t need to be a genius to understand that this cycle would probably be his last here.
Returning to his quarters, all the dozens and dozens of fairies that had once used this area as their rest area had slowly departed, leaving only him and a few others that had either very personal connections with some people from Athal.
This neither good nor bad situation made it so that he directly went to his quarters without any distractions.
Once settled and ready to slumber, he brought up his quests, ready to claim his contribution reward.
Dynamic Faction Contribution Quests: Nation of Eland
Volunteering: Contribute to the stability of your faction without asking for anything in return. The more time spent and the harder the tasks, the greater the contribution.
Securing: Investigate and resolve problems occurring inside your faction. The more problems resolved and the more difficult their resolutions, the greater the contribution.
Innovating: Give your faction new ways to achieve its goals. The more impacting and practical the innovations, the greater the contribution.
Prospering: Allow your faction to prosper and develop in the most optimal manner. The more influential and impacting the changes you brought, the greater the contribution.
Dynamic Invisible Enemy: Your faction is being progressively invaded by a hidden faction, its traces are hard to find to the point that only a few extraordinary survivors have been able to report its existence after they escaped its clutches. The more information found and the more action taken to resist that invisible enemy, the greater the contribution.
Dynamic Fairy Mystery: Find out what happened to the hundreds of thousands of fairies that once populated Eland to fill a great failing in your faction’s history. The more clues found about this case, the greater the contribution.
Dynamic Rogue Canopy: Unearth every branch and agent of the Canopy sowing chaos inside the area protected by your faction and neutralize them. The greater the provided help in that goal, the greater the contribution.
Dynamic Abyssal Threat: Reduce the threat level of the abyssal lifeforms by either making sure nothing disturbs them in their deep waters or by decreasing their population. The more actions taken and the greater their impact, the greater the contribution.
Dynamic Emma Succession War: Minimize the impact of the Emma Empire’s succession war on your faction. The less impacted your faction is by the global consequence of that event, the greater the contribution.
Dynamic Eland History: Help retrace the history of how Eland has been founded centuries ago to fulfill your faction’s needs for solid ancestry. The more concrete and proven each glorious historical fact is, the greater the contribution.
Dynamic Contribution: Claim?
“So it finally disappeared… Sigh~” Aven sighed emotionally.
The abomination surge that had occupied more than 2 months of his life was finally decreed over by not only his eyes, but also by his innate ability.
There was no recovering from that, it was the final blow that archived the whole trial of whether the surge was still something or not.
“And now, this quest took the highest spot… Interesting,” not daring to expose so openly his knowledge of the invisible enemy, he saw something in the order in which the dynamic quests were arranged, “But solving the fairy mystery, hehe! Not for me, thank you!”
Turning to ridicule and sweeping away the permanent nascent worry about the invisible enemy dynamic quest, he claimed his reward for this cycle.
Dynamic Faction Contribution Quests: Nation of Eland
…
Dynamic Contribution: 29 484 000 FCP
“68 and a quarter hours of single-minded contribution for 30 million FCP,” unlocking his phone, he entered this number and got the answer he had already expected, “432 000 per hour… A worthy yield, but not one up to my expectations. Doesn’t that sound a bit too arrogant to say it like that?”
Finding himself a bit too despicable and arrogant after he said that, he took on a pondering expression, “Maybe not the despicable part… But the arrogance, hu~ Something to think about, it’s an interesting possibility.”
Keeping to himself the context behind his words, he wrapped himself in his blanket and closed his eyes.
