The Price of Level 6

My pretty little base had finally shed its sprout-like newbie days and taken on the proper look of a mid-tier player ready to start the game in earnest.

"Hmm. Construction took a little over two weeks... Factoring in the teleport facility on top of that, we're looking at a full month at minimum, aren't we?"

"Still faster than charging mindlessly straight into the kaiju home base."

"True enough. When you put it that way."

The silver lining was that Oxianor and the rest of the kaiju side had been understanding about why we were lingering around the base instead of moving out immediately.

Of course, at first things had been a little tense. We'd accepted their quest — which supposedly meant following their lead — only to wipe out every mob in the surrounding area and settle in for base construction instead. Oxianor's gaze had grown more and more like that of a certain rabbit-eared sheep with every passing day.

"So a long-range teleport will get us to the target coordinates in a single jump?"

"Yes."

"Though we'll have to find our own way back, just so you know."

"And for that, base construction is essential."

"Yeeeeees."

"In that case... it cannot be helped."

Once she'd heard the full explanation, Oxianor flipped completely — actively asking if there was anything she could do to help with construction. Of course, no amount of assistance from their side was going to slap a buff on our build speed, so we politely declined the increasingly restless Oxianor and went about leisurely gathering resources instead.

Given the situation, Marianne would occasionally leave for two or three days at a stretch to manage her pirate forces. All in all, we were living some genuinely peaceful days.

And then, the next morning—

The moment that bright, cheerful upgrade message replaced the usual alarm, I headed straight for the command center, dropped into my personal command seat, and pulled up the base construction menu.

But the second I laid eyes on the construction list, I felt my breath catch hard in my throat.

No way. Were they always this expensive?

The prices felt like they'd ballooned by at least ten thousand units compared to what I remembered. I immediately bolted to the gallery and searched for any info on base upgrade costs.

"Ahh."

So it was just the devs being their usual deranged selves. I dropped a solid upvote on the useful info, then—

I casually cleaned up the bait post hanging off the side of the gallery, closed the window, and pulled the construction menu back up.

Well, at least I've got resources to spare. Small mercies.

I gave a quiet thanks to past-me for not blowing resources on junk over the last two weeks, then immediately hit construct on the Long-Range Warp System.

But as with all high-tier buildings, pressing the button didn't mean it would be ready in a snap.

Another two ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠weeks, huh.

I stared at the construction timer floating in front of me, shook my head, and figured — nothing better to do right now.

Partia, Belial, and Pashtura — the ones I'd be sending out as VIP escorts — plus the rest of the crew, whose levels were lagging behind the ones constantly thrown into real combat no matter how much research they did. Even Griyanaar, who looked about two steps away from class-changing into a Child of Darkness.

"Ahhhh, Commander? I feel like I get stronger just from researching, you know?"

"Nope. People who hole up indoors all day end up wrecking their health."

"What?"

I dragged her out by force and set us to leveling by hunting the pirates in the area.

And so, while Icarus spent a little over a month juggling both his command duties and his personal quest like that, every player on the gallery — and beyond — was fracturing further and further into faction-based camps.

The problem was that the so-called "clans" that prided themselves on being big had been accepting players left and right, which meant the player factions inside those clans were tangled into an absolute mess.