— Trumpets — 

Never before in the history of the Trial has a Master Builder gained the alliance of an epic level being before founding their civilization, nor has Isolation ever before seen a Legendary theme. For this incredible feat, you will be rewarding with a boon worthy of such an achievement.

You have gained a Power Crystal!

Max had just enough time to wonder what a Power Crystal was, and at the contradictory nature of the prompts—rewarding him for choosing the spider nymph theme wearas before it had punished him for how he had completed her dungeon—when another prompt appeared.

— Trumpets —

Congratulations, Master Builder! You have chosen your theme

Spider Swarm

From now on your people will feel the urge to move and migrate with the changing of the seasons. Your skin shall feel the smoothness of silk. And your enemies will fear your deadly traps.

The Civilization of the Amber Swarm has been born!

New options are now available in your Civilization U.I.

The prompts just kept coming! It seemed even choosing to settle in the meadow by the river had been a good choice.

— Ding Ding! —

Hark and Rejoice, Master Builder! You have decided to found your civilization in an area steeped in life magic — The entrance to Malachite’s Ludo Narrative Echo Chamber (chromatic level dungeon). For choosing such an appropriate location, you have unlocked a settlement bonus!

Bounty of Seeds

All trees within one kilometer of the village will bear either fruits or nuts, all year round, regardless of tree species. Grow more types of trees to increase the variety of fruits and nuts that can be harvested.

Be Aware: This bonus can only be claimed if the commander’s residence star-gram is placed on this location and within the next twenty-four hours. Failure to begin settlement construction within the allotted time will result in the negation of this settlement bonus.

This was getting seriously awesome! He’d just ensured that they wouldn’t need to worry about starving until the settlement was so large the population inside the paremeter of the village was larger than the surrounding forests could support. Max didn’t know much about agriculture, but he suspected that tens or even hundreds of square kilometers of fruit and nut orchard could support a lot of people.

And the prompts still weren’t done.

— Ding! —

You have learned the skill Silk Weaver. You have gained an ingrained instinct for how to harvest the silk from all kinds of Giant Spiders, spin that silk into threads, and weave those threads into cloth. This skill comes with several sub-skills:

Make bone needle

Make spinning top

Make basic loom

Be Aware: You have learned your first skill. Skills are normally acquired through residence of a skill granting building, though as you have just learned, there are other ways to gain skills as well. Practice your skill to level it up. By leveling up your skill, you will unlock new opportunities to diversify and innovate.

Max wasn’t exactly sure he was ready to jump into weaving cloth right now—he had so much other stuff to do—but it was awesome to see that the perks the Spider Nymph had promised were already starting to bear fruit. It would have been nice if she’d told him all this though. On the other hand, maybe she hadn’t actually known herself. The prompt did say this was the first time anyone had the Spider Swarm theme.

There was still one final prompt to read through before the deluge was over. This one wasn’t nearly so earth shattering as the last four, but it was nice none the less.

— Bong! —

You have chosen your theme, Master Builder, and are about to found your settlement.

New Quest — Develop your settlement to the following levels:

Population: 250

Unique Military Buildings: 1

Unique Culture Buildings: 1

Unique Commerce Buildings: 1

Penelty for refusal or non completion: None

Reward for completion: Two Deity Engrams

Do you accept the quest?

[Yes] or [No]?

Duh! Max hit yes without a second thought.

He let out a long breath as the final prompt winked out of his vision.

“That was a lot of stuff!” he said out loud.

“What was?” asked Wildflower.

Max quickly filled her in on everything that he’d just read. The Forest Nymph’s reaction was enthusiastic to say the least. Max almost had to physically restrain her from going full briar wolf and running off into the forest to see if any of the trees had starting growing strange new fruits and nuts. Eventually, she agreed that they should start on building the settlement first.

Wildflower also had no idea what a Power Crystal was and when Max retrieved it from his inventory, the analyise prompt just said it was an item of great power. That was literally all it said.

— Ding! —

You have received Power Crystal

This is an item of Great Power

Even Thorax wasn’t any help.

Seeing as there didn’t seem to be anything they could use the blue and sparkly crystal for right now, Max put it back in his inventory and turned his attention to the matter of the Commander’s Residence.

Navigating back to the ‘Found your Settlement’ option in his menu, he now found that it redirected to his list of available deity en-grams

Currently, only the Commander’s Residence wasn’t grayed out. All the other en-grams he’d collected just said, “Primary building requirement not met” when he hovered over them.

Max wasn’t sure exactly what was going to happen when he hit the go button, but when he did, his mouth dropped open in shock. His wasn’t the only one. Next to him, Wildflower gasped, and even Thorax let out a deep hum of what sounded like appreciation.

It snapped into existance about twenty feet in front of them. Memories from Max’s past seeped to the surface, giving him the words to describe what he was looking at. It looked like a gigantic blue hologram, made out of mists and stars. Faint blue lines of light connected the brighter stars, making a constellation vector diagram of the building that was to be built.

The building itself looked just like what Max had seen when he’d been picking the theme, all Arabian tent and Japanese temple, but rendered in blue mists and starlight.

He turned his attention to Wildflower and was startled when the en-gram also moved. A quick series of experiments showed that the en-gram moved in response to Max’s focus.

“I think here!” Max eventually declared after a few minutes of discussion about where they were going to put it. It was a spot about halfway between the river and the forest’s edge, giving equal access to both, while favoring neither.

A nod of agreement from his two companions and Max pressed the new button in his U.I. to permanently place down the star-gram.

Error: You cannot place a Commander’s Residence as you do not have a commander to assign.

Son of a bitch. He supposed he should have seen that coming. Wildflower may have agreed to be a commander, but it wasn’t as though he’d gone through the process that the Master Builder back in the dungeon had gone through with him to make him a commander.

A quick scroll through his U.I. brought him to the option to assign a commander.

Error: You cannot assign a commander as you currently have no followers.

Gods damn it!

Max went literally one option down in the U.I. and tried one more time.

— Ping! —

You are trying to recruit a follower or followers

Focus on the name or characterisits of the individual or group you wish to extend this invitation to.

Max looked hard at Wildflower who was looking at him with a quizzilke expression.

Do you wish to extend a follower invitation to Wildflower?

[Yes] or [No]?

Max hit [yes]

Wildflower’s eyes widened.

“I got a prompt!” she said.

A thought occurred to Max. “You can read? Does paper even exist?”

“Paper? No idea. But prompts? Of course.