Creation: Book 3: Strandbinder Complete!

Walker was still plugging away at the Follower system. He'd made some excellent progress within a short amount of time and looked at the series that had been updating as he went.

Create a Scripture (Complete)

Create a leader for your religion (Complete)

Create a hierarchy of members (Complete)

Assign tasks to your followers (Complete)

Assign rewards for your followers (Complete)

Create separate religious branches (Complete)

Allow your followers to communicate with each other from long distances (upgrade needed)

Create holy sites that interact with their surroundings (upgrade needed)

Update your scripture at need (upgrade needed)

Ability to declare a holy war (upgraded needed)

more...

The rewards were tricky. Without a class system, item system, or even an event system, he'd had to get creative to solve rewarding the first few ranks of followers for their achievements. The follower system needed to have initial ranks for when the Sapients arrived. That wasn't to say he'd be forcing them to join The Unending Summit, but he did want it to be an option, plus the scripture would be a great help to any burgeoning civilization.

The reward for completing the first task, reading and understanding the scripture, was an immediate promotion to the second rank. Of course, Walker had spent over an hour developing the test that would automatically move Pathfinders to Explorers, but as a former teacher, it was a fairly straightforward and pragmatic event.

The task and trial for moving from Explorer to Seeker was more complicated. Walker had connected the Milestone system, rather than Cagna herself, to his Follower system, thereby allowing him to track movement. As the Traveler series was already mostly created, he'd attached the apprentice milestone directly to Explorer rank. The more they traveled, the faster it was completed.

Apprentice milestone- The Full 25:

Travel at least 25 miles across Symphony. 5 points.

Twenty-five miles may not seem like a lot to people from his world, but that's because they had the benefit of vehicles and bicycles. Not to mention maps, pathing, and relative safety in a world without monsters. They wouldn't understand how difficult traveling across Symphony could be.

The nice part was, if for some reason he found the task didn't suit the reward, he could always change it. After completing The Full 25, Explorers would receive a prompt, asking them to head to the nearest library for a trial by combat for the next rank. Walker would have to think of more ways to reward people moving up in ranks, but for now, the ranks themselves would have to suffice as rewards.

He hadn't had a chance to set up Seekers as of yet. The reason being, he wanted them to get a blank book upon promotion, and the ability to do so was outside of his reach. According to Virgil, the Follower system provided the scripture directly to new followers by absorbing ambient magic in the air and forming the former journal from virtually nothing. He called it directed substantive conjuration. So...conjuring. But without an item system, Walker couldn't do the same...yet. Just another task he'd have to look at as time moved forward.

To pass the 8th Follower system task, he'd had to bifurcate the ranks a bit, and establish different branches of The Unending Summit that would work across multiple levels. Walker made sure that there were enough roles for people to choose from, so they wouldn't be pigeonholed into something they didn't actually want to do. It was tricky and took him a full day to think up and explore. Good thing he'd sped up time when he did.

Induction Branch Administrative Branch Covert Branch Combat Branch Discovery Branch Leadership Branch

Pathfinder, Explorer, Seeker, Acolyte Archivist, Librarian, Clerk, Guide Shadow, Specialist, Analyst, Operative Warden, Custodian, Trailblazer, Sentinel Voyager, Curator, Cartographer, Navigator Zenith, Branch Head, Territory Manager, Director, Sage

Walker had designed it with the prevailing theory of allowing his followers to become anything they wanted within reason. It was likely, as time moved forward, that he would need to create more roles, even more branches. But for now, it was fine. He'd have to test it after they super-seeded all of the humans at the same time. Thankfully, while he couldn't really modify the follower system overall, its internals were easily changed. He clicked on the leadership branch and the roles filled out in his overlay.

The Leadership Branch of The Unending Summit

Sage Director Territory Manager Branch Head Zenith

The most knowledgeable person found within a library. The Sage is responsible for the local Discovery branch as well as the protection of all books found within their area. The Director of a library, they're responsible for the Administrative and Combat branches within their local area. They will also manage all incoming inductee ranks and make sure each is guided correctly. Territory managers are responsible for the entirety of all libraries within their region and manage the Covert branch. They also form a check on Directors and Sages, keeping a constant lookout for corruption and scandal before it can form. The Branch Head is responsible for all members of their branch and can overrule any ranks except the Zenith themself or another Branch Head. Branch Heads are the advising council for the Zenith, and will provide wisdom by request. This rank is chosen by the current Zenith, and can be replaced at any time by their will. The leader of The Unending Summit. The Zenith will ensure the growth of their members, make major decisions regarding the focus of their religion, and remove any corruption found within their ranks. They are empowered by the Creator to take any actions necessary to achieve their goals. This is the final rank.

It was a lot to take in. Each local library would have a Sage and a Director. The Sage would manage knowledge and its pursuit, while the Director focused on making sure the library ran the way it was supposed to. The Director also needed to make an attempt to help the induction ranks find their footing, so the Unending Summit would continue to grow with proper guidance for the lowest ranks. Walker visualized it as the Directors were those with ambition and leadership skills, whereas Sages were more of nerds like him. They loved knowledge and the pursuit of it.

The Territory manager would oversee all libraries within the vicinity, it of course being a direct promotion from Director. The position was needed as Walker's landmass system kept updating.

Every time the system had updated, the landmass sizes had correspondingly increased in size. There was no doubt in his mind that one day an update could drop a piece of land the size of his home state California.

The Territory managers would have a big job, and would also lead the Covert Branch and its responsibilities of information gathering. If it came to it, Walker had also visualized this branch completing assassinations in the future. It was a far cry from his initial issues and problems with murdering things. He considered it a bit of a de-evolution that he had come to terms with assassination as part of his role here. But, he had a great memory, and human beings had a history of creating massive issues focused on singular people. Eliminating a cult of personality before it fully formed and started to ruin his world was a big priority to him. How much better would Earth be without the Second World War? Or would that create a host of other issues just as large, if not larger? Either way, he'd have to make sure that any assassination approvals had to go through a stringent vetting process.

Branch Heads would basically be extremely accomplished people within the Unending Summit, and would be chosen by the Zenith. He foresaw this creating an issue where there was a corrupt Zenith appointing their corrupt friends to the advisory council. This would create a cascading problem where corruption spread from the Branch Heads down to the Territory Managers, and eventually to all of the localized Directors and Sages. Like a fast tide, corruption would spread through the ranks of his religion and burn out any hope he had for creating a balanced way of living that allowed for many choices. But, that was why Walker was here in the first place. The first whiff of this kind of problem and heads would roll. He remembered Virgil talking about his recent tendency toward tyrannical dictatorship and had to mentally temper himself. Removing corruption at the root was important, but he'd have to show proof to his followers that he had indeed acted in a just manner. Troublesome in the end.

The Zenith was of course the person who was in charge of everything. They decided on promotions to leadership roles, held judicial approval for punishments, and received information collated from all of the different branches at once. He would have to be quite careful in deciding who would be the first Zenith in charge of things, as that would likely be a sink or swim moment for his religion. Of course, he could just outlaw all other forms of religion, but that went against his codified beliefs in the scripture, and he felt the uncomfortable buzz reappear in his chest just at the thought of it. It didn't fade away until he firmly grasped his former thought and chose to never think of it again.

There were no crafter ranks, and that was intentional. He didn't have the two systems that would interact with it yet, and felt like everyone should have the choice of deciding on their professions without it pushing them into a corner. Maybe he would add something in the future, who knows?

Walker continued to think about what his tasks and rewards could be for the other twenty-one ranks, leaving Zenith off that list, when a voice rang out.

"Give me access!" Cagna uncharacteristically yelled at him as he looked through his screens.

"Nooooooooooo." Walker said, dragging the word out as she'd asked multiple times now, interrupting his flow of thought. The first few times were gentle questions, then prodding, and now she'd upgraded to outright yelling.

Cagna had of course asked for access to the Follower system immediately after noticing her Milestone system linking to the Unending Summit. But, unlike Rimi with his monsters and the entity subsystem, Walker had pushed that back. This was one of the few systems he'd self-manage, as he feared others making changes without first talking to him. It was....personal.

Cagna changed strategies, "Pweasseee Creator?" She said, batting her eyes at him and tucking her chin into her paws.

Walker's mouth dropped open, "Who taught you how to do that?"

Echidna laughed in the background.

"Urrgg" Walker said, feeling his hands ball up, "Damned stupid gods messing with my assistants. They're all bad influences!"

"Oh, come on now." Echidna said, lazing about on the ground without looking at him. "The child needed a break from her work, just as you do sometimes. It was quite fun to explain to her how to get things out of men that they don't want to give."

"Yep!" Cagna said, back to her usual cheery self.

Walker gave them both a glare, and with a final "No!", he turned around and continued his work on the Follower system. He pulled up the most recent task update.

Religion task: Communicate with one member of your religion: Part 9

Proper communication is the lifeblood of running an organization, faction, or in this instance, religion. Connect to one of your followers using the communication network within the Follower system.

Connections made: 0/1

Communication network established: No

Reward for completion: The Follower system will upgrade

Walker wasn't ready to talk to his single follower yet. He needed to give Chipper time to read the book before he intruded yet again on his territory, plus he needed to take a break from his focus on the Follower system. He'd been working at it for days now and it was time for another painful soul-stretching. Before he turned away from the Follower system, he looked at the communication network settings and altered them slightly, making it so no one but the Zenith could contact him directly. He didn't want to start suddenly receiving messages or calls from Pathfinders trying to get some help. They needed to...find their own path. Plus, that would be quite annoying, especially as the size of his religion drastically increased.

Walker laid down and continued his painful soul exercises. On the snap-back, it felt looser than it had before, and he guessed it would pin down after only one more attempt. He couldn't do it right away as it was still much too painful to push through. He looked in on a few manticores, finding one particularly large female roaming the forests and murdering her way around. That was a little disconcerting.

Getting up, he moved slowly to try to not cause any spikes in pain, then checked in with Virgil on how much time had gone by since they'd kicked up the Milestone system.

"It has been a day and a half." Virgil said with some side-eye, not liking the interruption to his work.

Walker scuffed a shoe against the grass, "Shit."

"Indeed. Might I suggest you continue to work on your new Follower system, or perhaps some more milestones with Cagna?"

"What about the System linker?"

Virgil canted his head, "You've hardly even looked at it."

Walker nodded, "Sure, but it's still pretty useful." Walker pulled up the description he'd received when he completed the first temporal task. It was a doozy.

Reward for completing the first temporal task:

Congratulations Dante! You've unlocked the System Link ability!

The system link ability is unique within the alpha protocol. Few have discovered, or been tempted, to create a temporal anomaly. Their shortsightedness disallowed what benefits an anomaly can bring to a Creator first establishing themself. You do not have that problem. The System Link ability allows the Creator to build a hierarchy of systems, creating a network of interconnected systems that work in sync with each other.

Upgradeable.

"I'm still unsure of what exactly it does." Walker said while scratching the back of his head.

Virgil sighed and fully turned away from the evolution chambers, "It will allow you to create a program wherein some systems are dependent on others. The upgrade is also substantial, so I suggest you find ways to be creative with its use."

"Heyy, that's great. It'll work really well with the Milestone system and its ability to unlock things. Cool. I was worried I'd have to make another system that would track who had what systems so that systems happened everywhere you turned around." Walker saw Virgil roll his eyes, "System." He simply stated.

"I get it."

"You would think there would be some kind of task for this? Plus, if I can link systems, can I split them?"

"What do you mean split?" Virgil asked with a confused look on his face.

Walker began pacing, "Well, I don't necessarily want everyone to have a super powerful system right away. I want them to be earned slowly and over time. It should be something that is gained through effort and force of will. If I can split systems so that they upgrade for the entity who receives them, kind of but not really like the tiers in the Monster system, I can create greater rewards for them. It would also be what I need to fully flesh out and create my Class system. Plus, I don't need fully fleshed-out systems for everything. My plans for the Mentoring and Dynasty systems are limited in scope. I don't need a subsystem assistant to watch them and track everything, nor do I need to spend nearly as much time on them as I have for our first two."

Virgil nodded, "I see. Can you hold for a moment?"

Walker tilted his head, "Why?"

"Because I am going to ask for you."

"Oh" Walker replied. "ok t..." He stopped speaking when he noticed Virgil wasn't paying attention to him anymore. The large brown squirrel stared into space for several minutes, so Walker headed over and spoke to Rimi. Apparently, he had created a small rabbit for his Tier 1 and already shot it into space. Since they weren't actually seeding them, and the entities were instantly destroyed, Walker wasn't getting updates to his Unique entity tasks. That meant they were burning through his resources as no grades were coming in with the inherent rewards. Even a C-grade gave him his materials back. Thankfully Crratch's surplus was still there and they had plenty of material left over.

"What's going to be your tier two?" Walker asked.

"Oh, hi Walker!" Rimi said with a smile, turning away from his works.

Walker smiled back, "Hello Rimi."

"Tier two, yes. Well, you want to use these to train your sapients right?" The slightly large blue squirrel asked.

"Right." Walker nodded.

"Rabbits are quick, and these ones will be jumpers. So for Tier two, why don't we make sure they're slower, but stronger at the same time?" Rimi's voice picked up speed, "This way, the sapients will have to learn how to fight against different types of opponents from the start."

"Okay." Walker said, feeling Rimi's infectious energy seep into him. "So what are you thinking? A tortoise? Keep in mind I don't want the Tier two massive either. They should be a little larger than the rabbits, but not huge."

"Welll." Rimi said with a sly smile appearing on his face, "I spoke to Virgil about it, and he told me about Koalas."

"Fucking Drop Bears?" Walker exclaimed. "You want to put Drop Bears on Symphony."

"I don't know that word, but if they're like Koala's, yes. The Koala drops down, and if they escape its clutches, it's an easy kill. That way they learn another method of survival. Always be aware of your surroundings." Rimi put his arms behind his back, reminding Walker of a professor he'd once had. "With the rabbits, they learn about speed and dodging. If you dodge its leap, they should be fairly easy to dispatch. With the Koala's, they learn about perceiving their surroundings. Always be aware of what's around you. Then, for Tier three, we up it yet again." Rimi laughed....actually it was a cackle, Walker mentally amended. A small blue squirrel was cackling in front of him. How strange his life had become.

"I made the rabbits faster and modified their hind muscles to increase the strength of their jumps, but they'll never upgrade their kernels and thus don't have any magic. The Koala's will, but as we'll probably put them into a forest environment, I don't foresee it as being much of a change. But, oh, the third tier." Rimi's smile put Walker's back up. "Speed and surprise are great, but we need the third tier to be different. Powerful. So, why not make them smart? That way, your sapients have to learn to strategize. I think we should do Grey wolves." After he finished speaking, Walker couldn't hear any other sounds on Sonata. it was like the moonlet was waiting for what he was about to say. This might not be such a good idea.

"Fuck Rimi, you don't think that's a bit too much? Magically modified Grey Wolves?"

"Not at all. We'll change them so that they only work in pairs. Make them territorial so they won't like other Wolves being near them, and that way they'll work in a male and female duo each time. It'll take some time, but I think I can do it with Virgil's help. He's the one who suggested them actually."

"So, you basically want to make my Alpha ability a modification."

Rimi clapped, "Exactly! Wolves are naturally very smart, and with Tier 3, they'll have magic as well. You said you wanted to build them up to just tier three, well, consider this the graduation to the outside world of Symphony. If they can defeat the Wolves, they can leave. Simple as that. Plus, by forcing them into only pairs, it'll keep the population managed and not let them spring out of control. Not to mention newborns all start at Tier one, with their parents modifications being genetically bound through the evolution chambers."

Walker nodded, "Okay, but if this gets all screwed up, I'm absolutely blaming you."

"Hehe" Rimi said in a higher-pitched voice, before he rubbed his hands together, "to work!"

Walker turned away from him as the blue squirrel moved toward the evolution chambers, a koala and a Grey wolf popping into both. He hoped Rimi knew what he was doing. Walker remembered hearing a story on Earth about a super-pack of wolves attacking an entire town and killing multiple people. That'd be the last thing a new civilization would need. He'd have to spend a lot of time watching them after the first seeding.

Looking at Virgil, the advanced assistant was still staring at his screens, so he continued on with his soul work. He was still a little sore, but it passed the time. After a minute of stretching things out, he managed to push down and watched the green flare spread out of him. Unless he was mistaken, the color of his soul was deepening further and it seemed to spread faster. Walker smiled through the pain.

I'm getting stronger

Echidna came over and told him that rather than going for his legs, as he was planning on doing, he should start stretching it toward his back. That way he would have one fully enveloped part of his body. Walker agreed, although he didn't have much of a choice in the matter as he still wasn't exactly sure what he was doing. Nor did he feel a large increase in muscles, aside from his stomach area feeling a bit tighter. He decided to do something he hadn't done in a while.

Walker relaxed. He didn't look at monitors or systems. He didn't spend time on his soul. He just...laid there, and stared at the sky. Aside from the throbbing pain in his body, it was nice. He wondered about Earth. He knew that they were placed in some kind of time-stasis according to Virgil, but still. He couldn't help having a bad feeling about Mr. Harrison. He hadn't thought of him in a while, but each time he did, it came with a flare of justified anger and resentment. Walker didn't want to get sucked into another round of depression, so pushed himself to mentally move on. After spending a few more minutes on the ground, wondering if he'd ever date again with his new status in life and whether dating one of his entities would be a form of incest, his overlay lit up without him doing anything.

.....

Private message from an Alpha Protocol Council Member detected.

.....Retrieving....

Hello again child.

No.

Creator.

What wonderful things you are doing there on...Sonata. Ah. Wonderful name. Wonderful.

Your assistant Virgil has spoken to me, and we have agreed to create a series of tasks associated with the System Link ability.

Very good thinking there.

We'll also be doing you a favor as you have come up with an idea we had not considered. Enjoy Dante. Do great things.

I'm counting on it.

- - -

Alpha Protocol changes occuring.

Planet Symphony is being advanced by five and a half days.

Walker turned his head from the ground and watched as Symphony sped up again. He held his breath, worried a temporal anomaly might occur. He watched as the Crater seemed to explode for a moment before it stopped and rewound in time, all the rocks, water, and trees going back to where they were. Then another message hit his overlay.

Anomaly discovered. Anomaly eliminated.

Recovering lost resources. Some lost resources are unrecoverable. Available resources replaced.

Compensation required. Compensation found. Compensation given.

.....Scanning.....

Optional tasks updated!

- - -

System task complete: Design a system: Series 2

System design requirements:

System is found to be balanced and consistent: Yes

System allows for growth: Yes

System is applied to world continuously without calamity: 7/7 Days

Reward for completion: Gain the ability to create a third system.

...

System task given: Design a system: Series 3

While other creators may rely on the survival of the fittest or technological expansion, the alpha protocol has provided you with the means to create your own path toward gaining strength. Build a system that encourages your entities to grow.

System requirements:

System is found to be balanced and consistent: No

System allows for growth: No

System is applied to world continuously without calamity: 0/7 Days

Reward for completion: Gain the ability to create unlimited systems.

Subsystem Assistant task complete: Train the assistant: Series 2

Subsystem assistant requirements:

Assistant is assigned to a subsystem: Yes

Assistant is autonomous: Yes

Assistant completes work continuously without calamity: 7/7 Days

Reward for completion: Gain a third subsystem assistant.

...

Subsystem Assistant task complete: Train the assistant: Series 3

Subsystem assistant requirements:

Assistant is assigned to a subsystem: No

Assistant is autonomous: No

Assistant completes work continuously without calamity: 7/7 Days

Reward for completion: Gain unlimited subsystem assistants.

System Link task found: Create an organizational matrix for your systems

No description was found.

Organizational matrix made: No

Supreme system defined: No

Reward for completion: System Link ability upgrade

- - -

Reward for assisting the Alpha Protocol Council with creating a new task:

Congratulations Dante! You've unlocked the System Split ability!

This is an entirely new ability, custom created by the Alpha Protocol Council for Creator Dante of rendition 4AA. A description is unavailable at this time.

Potentially Upgradeable.

- - -

Compensation for the destruction of four entities designed by Creator Dante:

A plenitude of Entity creation materials.

A plenitude of Landmass creation materials.

One creation instrument upgrade.

"Huh." Walker said to himself with a small smile at the boon he'd just received. "I wonder which of the entities died."

Suddenly, he hard Rimi screaming over by the evolution chambers, "Chompp!!!"

"Oh." Walker said, the smile leaving his face.