Chapter 353: Earthly Expanses
Coop planned to follow the contour of the South American coast as his adventure continued, starting from the Orinoco delta, due north of Mount Roraima.
The Tempest Fleet was sailing up through the many winding rivers to penetrate the interior, but Coop could move as the crow flies, as long as the landmarks were conspicuous enough to be seen as he flickered back into reality. He would be incorporating the ocean for guidance on this leg of the journey, relying on its presence to avoid getting lost. There wasn’t anything more conspicuous than the ocean itself, so he was feeling a bit more confident after his jungle expedition had turned out to be more demanding than expected. If he needed to venture into the interior, he would always be within a few mistjumps of returning to his path. It was foolproof, basically.
First, he skipped into Trinidad and Tobago, where the Tempest Fleet’s South Atlantic convoys harbored, and destroyed a massive nest of Elites supporting an ambitious Field Boss that threatened their pylon territory toward the Gulf of Paria. The Constructs had made their nests around a series of shallow caves at the base of the Northern Range, which if Coop squinted, seemed like an extension of the Andes mountains that he was repeatedly climbing. The invaders couldn’t secure the caves themselves because of populations of nocturnal Oilbirds that aggressively protected their colonies, leaving them exposed to someone like Coop and enabling his rapid movements.
Clearing out the Infestation of Primal Constructs finalized an island skipping route that connected Venezuela back to Ghost Reef. The human survivors on the islands had previously been contacted through the early efforts of the pirates, starting all the way back when Elder Olani had drifted to Ghost Reef. The territory they had fled was reclaimed and mana pylons were installed once the island settlement began to expand. At this point, the entire Caribbean Sea was integrated into Ghost Reef’s network, with the perimeter passing from Grand Bahama through Puerto Rico, around to Barbados, and down to Trinidad. The Caribbean Sea joined the Gulf of Mexico as their faction influence spread.
Coop continued south, following the coast, for what ended up being the start of an extremely long portion of his trip. Unfortunately, while he encountered many different variants of the Primal Constructs throughout his trip across South America, a surprising number of them were repeated, and not just within the individual regions.
He encountered invaders that he had seen as far as Florida existing in great numbers within locations as far as Venezuela and Brazil. It should have been expected, given the complete coverage granted to the planetary sponsor. He imagined it would have taken hundreds of thousands of variants to fully encompass a planet like Earth. He doubted there were many factions out there that could support such a diversified force. The fact that he was able to continue collecting Slayer titles as the count rose was a testament to the Primal Constructs and their aptitude for invasions.
As he scoured the environments the hours turned to days, and the days to weeks. While mistjumping in what had become a rather casual pace, he uncovered enough unique enemies to maintain his desired progress all while interfacing with hidden communities of survivors. They helpfully pointed out problematic areas so that the levels kept coming, and more importantly, the stats really piled on.
Since the start of the third phase of his re-levelling plan, he had gained eight more Slayer titles while in South America after the five he cleaned out in what had remained around Ghost Reef. His status reflected his progress.
[Status]
HP - 80150/80150
MP - 312600/312600
Class - Revenant (Level 478)