Chapter 134: Hog Hobnob
Coop left the sleeping cat sprawled in his bed and slowly shook his head. If he wasn’t already desensitized by Jett’s sleeping habits, he would have been worried that she was dead, laid out on her back with her legs splayed out as if rigor mortis was setting in. By now, he understood that she was a deep sleeper despite what he assumed were leisurely days lazing about the settlement. For his part, he was more or less the same, so her habits were at least relatable.
Outside, it was an unusually overcast day on Ghost Reef. The clouds weren’t the dark gray that threatened storms, so rain didn’t seem to be on the forecast, but there were carpets of fluffy white shapes crowding each other and blocking the blue sky, leaving the islands in a perpetual shadow of filtered sunlight. Coop and Sunny went through their routine, this time enjoying a jog along the perimeter road of the northern half of the courtyard. It was a bit like running through a friendly neighborhood, with residents starting their days and stopping the pair for brief exchanges of greetings and friendly waves.
There were dozens of new service buildings among the previous, familiar crafters. Marcus had been filling out the gaps in their human expertise with basic alien contracts that complimented the prior purchases. Coop wasn’t sure what all of them were, but the Druid Circle was obvious enough, as it was essentially an organized grove of alien trees in the middle of a block, with blue and yellow leaves decorating black interwoven branches, and the artisan jewelcrafter had a large white replica gemstone mounted above the entrance to their shop, catching the percolating light that filtered through the clouds. The settlement had the capacity to sustain a much larger population than ever before, and even after they returned the phantoms they would have room for more residents. At this point in the assimilation, Coop had to assume most would be coming from other struggling settlements as the population consolidated within the surviving safe territories.
The breakfast meeting with Marcus was expanded to include Shane and Arthur, fresh from their two day adventure in the Mana Well. The gloom that had hung over the highest level party in the settlement had disappeared, swept away by their gains in the leveling zone. Coop inspected the pair’s auras, almost as excited to see their progress as he was when he checked his own.
[Human (Level 73)]
[Vitality Channeler (Acumen)]
[Dynamism]
[Human (Level 72)]
[Bloodseeker]
“Nice.” Coop commented as he joined their table. “What’s that? Seven levels in two days? I’m assuming you guys feel better about your prospects.” He didn’t comment on the fact that every time he inspected Arthur’s aura, he received less information than the previous time. The man valued his secrets.
Arthur nodded once in greeting while Shane responded. “Much better.” He confirmed. “But we’re going to need to set up a rotation to keep the top level under control. Just one party is not enough, even if it’s around the clock coverage.”
“We were already starting to facilitate hunting parties and guided grind zones. Wouldn’t it be easy to expand them to the Coral Forest?” Coop wondered, watching with hungry eyes as Desmond brought the breakfast of the day. That the sight of a meal still made his mouth water was a testament to his hearty appetite. Mana was messing with their anatomy so that hunger was a figment of his own imagination, but he still felt it.