Infinitium

(Syndicate Headquarters, Location Unknown)

It had been close, but Overseer Maxilinus had been able to get everything up and running so the Cultivation could start at 6 a.m. He’d had to make sure the Gambler’s Network knew that bets could be made and that they had access to the information concerning the inhabitants of Cultivation World 59,666. Sure, they were starting this Cultivation about a decade early, but he was sure that inhabitants of other worlds in the queue for cultivation wouldn’t mind the extra 3 to 6 months to live their “normal” lives. Mortals, how easy it was to understand their motivations.

Maxilinus was so glad that he’d come up with this method of creating soul stones and that the Syndicate had only grown in power as time passed. Even those divines that claimed to be good didn’t object too hard. Mortals could be useful to the Syndicate, about 5% usually. The other 95% were still useful but for beings like himself, they were useful in only two ways which required them to become a soul stone first in any case. Granted the majority would be low-level soul stones but that was fine. Crafters couldn’t get better at their skills without practice and the soul stones created this way ensured there would be plenty. Add to this that they had over 60,000 worlds across all the known Universes that were members, and the Syndicate performed new “cultivations” every 3 months with each planet being targeted once every 60,000 years or so. A practically infinite supply of Soul Stones.

In addition to the stated reasons for cultivation; Forced Adaption, Case Studies, the Creation of Soul Stones, and Gambling there was only one other reason the divines had not stopped this practice. One he had indulged in repeatedly once he’d ascended into the ranks of divinity. The Soul Stones could be utilized by the divines. It didn’t matter if the divines were predominantly good, neutral, or evil the soul stones represented a way to get divinity points for which another divine he’d talked to, A divine in a nearby universe whose purpose was to spread knowledge, had said when she’d explained this all to him. Souls could be released from soul stones and serve the various divines. If they accepted, the divine would earn more divinity points. For the gods of good alignment, a promise of an easy afterlife in their region of Heaven almost always guaranteed servitude. The Neutral gods might accept a negative answer and allow the spirit to pass out of this reality through ‘The Eye’ at the center of Astral Space. Or, they might do what the evil gods usually did when given the cold shoulder. They’d be fed to one of their minions until the last fragments of their being escaped into the unknowable. The Good gods looked at what they did as a Mercy that also helped the souls they were rescuing. The Neutral Divines didn’t seem overly concerned and just looked at the use of soul stones as a way to power level. The evil divines, like him, well it was a win-win situation since one of his colleagues had originally come up with the idea of cultivation on a planetary scale.

The first couple of cultivations had been tricky but they’d still been extremely profitable. They’d been set in motion by a couple of different gods of Death and Destruction from various Universes. The Gods, of Mercy and Justice, had made motions to end the practice. The god of Mercy wanted the cultivations to stop because too many innocents were being slaughtered. The god of Justice on the other hand had filed his motion and then found his position untenable. There were no universal laws requiring all planets to have magic. There were no laws against reducing ambient magic on a planetary scale. As there were no laws there was no injustice and his motion had been withdrawn. Also, the deaths that resulted because mortals couldn’t adapt to the change and were killed as random creatures of varying levels popped into existence or came out of a random dungeon or Labyrinth entrance when magic was added back to the planet were not unjust.

The one major problem with those first Cultivations was that the levels of the monsters were not controlled or predictable. This led to the creation of the Inter-Universal Cultivation Commission or the IUCC. The Divines that thought the idea of running cultivations was barbaric and evil clashed against those that thought this was the best use for the souls on the planet. Eventually, a consensus was reached.

Monsters followed the exact progression of mortals and even the divines if they made it that far except on worlds under Cultivation. A Rank 10 mortal was the equivalent, at least XP-wise, of a level 100 Monster. The Obelisks that were placed around the planet served two functions. To limit the level of creatures released anywhere on the planet and to localize those releases to give the inhabitants a chance, a concession to the Divines of Mercy. Concessions had also been made to allow for Safe Zones and Adolescents to be saved if anyone was willing to front the cost. Usually, that only happened if some Nobel’s kid was living it up among the ‘stupid’ mortals in a low magic world and a cultivation started. Why? Because there was one rule that could not be broken. Once a Cultivation started no one, mortal or divine, was allowed to leave the planet or assist anyone on the planet for 365 days after the clock started unless directly removed by the Syndicate. That’s why the announcement went out up to 12 hours early on the Gamblers Network and 6 hours early to all members of the Syndicate everywhere. Sudden starts didn’t happen often but if they did a parent had the equivalent of 60 earth minutes to pay the fee and get their kid out. If they were an adult, they could get off the planet if able, otherwise, they were stuck just like everyone. It could be dangerous to visit low-magic worlds on the cultivation roster.

Some ingenious assassinations had actually been accomplished by kidnapping the target and leaving them on a planet right before cultivation started. Citizens of the Syndicate were lucky to reach Grade 5 and the cultivation would eventually have monsters that were equivalent to Grade 10. If they weren’t ultra-rich or were just unlucky they’d be killed off when the monsters started to reach levels higher than theirs. This had forced another concession that bared officials of the IUCC from sharing the knowledge of where and when the next cultivation was likely to occur so assassinations couldn’t be planned in advance. They still happened though.

The monsters themselves came from Dungeons and Labyrinths throughout the multiple Universes and some of the energy and experience were rerouted back to those dungeons and Labyrinths with a 10% bonus. What this meant was that anything that monsters killed kept 90% of the XP they earned to level themselves and shunted 10% back to the Dungeon or Labyrinth. Over the many years this had been going on he’d actually witnessed dungeons connecting to the Labyrinths shortly after their monsters were teleported out. As they were technically pocket dimensions to begin with, their connection to the Labyrinth only required energy, which Cultivations produced generously. When dungeons reached that state and reached out to connect to the Labyrinth, they separated completely from the Universe they were in and existed separately within the Astral. The really old Gods talked of a time before there was an Astral plane but there weren’t very many of those Gods around as far as he knew.

The Dungeon and the Labyrinths allowed the obelisks to summon forth monsters from them with the understanding that they’d be getting some energy back from what the monster killed. Near the end of the 365-day period, one of two things usually happened. If the monster density was high the planet would be converted to a dungeon planet. If the monsters had been dealt with the ambient magic would allow for the creation of dungeon entrances and the monsters that were left would seek them out and make their way inside and the planet would just become another world controlled by the Syndicate.

Normally the Ambient mana would be ratcheted up slowly over time. Level 1 would be reached about 1 day after launch. Level 2 long after. The ambient magic was just a rating used to determine what level monsters and magic items the world could support with no issues. Level 1 could support levels 1-10, 2, Levels 11 – 20, etc… One of the other concessions that was required was that the Ambient Magic could not rise above 10 before day 366. The gods wanted the mortals to have a chance. The only reason the evil gods had agreed was that limiting the leveling of the monsters allowed the formation of a Gamblers network and because the information had to be accurate that meant worlds under cultivation were under observation at all times. This allowed for black market merchandising of the slaughter of mortals on a global scale. In addition to the evil gods, there were some real sickos out in the universe. There had been outcries of course, but they led nowhere. One problem he had today was that in one spot on this little blue ball of a planet, the ambient magic was comparable to normal levels on planets that could support a much higher ambient magic level.

Overseer Maxilinus turned to the announcement feed that all humans on Earth could hear.

“Greetings humans! I have some good news and some bad news. First the Good News, you are not alone in the Universe. In fact, you knew this 10,000 years ago but someone forgot to pass that information on…”

Overseer Maxilinus cut the feed and switched his display to Cultivation Planet 59,666 and pulled up the statistics on that planet.

Cultivation Planet 59,666 (Earth)

Population: 7,969,456,131

Average Ambient Magic Level: .1

Maximum Ambient Magic Level: 10

Cage Status 80%

Ever since the Administrator on Triton in Earth’s solar system had contacted him he’d been watching that Cage Status weaken as time went on. Before Midnight yesterday, the Cage Status had been 100%. Since then, something had ripped the ley lines from their points below the surface in an almost straight line from the tip of South America up into the center of North America. Currently whatever seemed to be doing the damage to the cage was in the city of Las Vegas Nevada.

A notification popped onto a terminal.

Gambler Network Courtesy Notification: A Diamond Rank Member has put a wager greater than 1,000,000 Syndicate Credits.

As one of the primary shareholders of the Gamblers Network, he made a call to his counterpart.

“Can I help you?” a wheezing high-pitched voice asked.

“Segmond, it’s Max, I just received a notification that someone made a wager for over 1,000,000 credits?”

“Saw that did you?

“Yep, anything I should be worried about.”

“Some local had some credits and decided to blow his proverbial load. We looked into him. He has the normal odds for a non-combatant, he shouldn’t be a problem. In fact, we’re excited. He purchased the insurance, so the network is really happy.

“How much did he bet?”

“A Googol”

“A Googol, are you Serious? You said he purchased the insurance, which one?”

“Both”

“Both?” Max asked. “Is there even a word for how much that is?”

“Since he paid twice it would be two duotrigintillion.”

“Okay, who’s the wager on?

“One Johnathan Bennard who resides in Dallas Texas.”

“Okay, I’ll keep an eye on him.

Just then more notifications popped up.

1,085,742,478, “Grow Up Safe and Sound” packages have been purchased.

369,600,000 Grow Up Safe and Sound packages have been purchased for newborns with the additional fee paid for their mothers.

Total individuals paid for 1,824,942,478

Total Population on Earth after removal of children and mothers: 6,144,513,653

Total Syndicate Credits Earned 1,455,342,478,000,000

“Segmond, I’ve gotta go. I’ve gotta check on something,” Max said as he turned the announcement channel up so he could hear it again.

“…Everything will be provided through the generosity of Johnathan Bennard from Dallas Texas…”

For the next 40 minutes, Maxilinus learned everything he could about Johnathan Bennard. He was born in Clovis New Mexico. Went to college in a city called Alamogordo, then moved to Dallas Texas to start teaching soon after. He’d been there until yesterday when he’d suddenly disappeared and reappeared in Antarctica somehow. Other than that, one unexplained teleportation there was nothing in his file. The local military had picked up on the problem immediately and he’d been taken to Area 51, though currently, he was in Las Vegas Nevada.

He zeroed in on Johnathan and watched as the man teleported into the air above the Mirage Motel and looked around as the Cultivation officially started. He watched as Johnathan made his way down to an Obelisk and touched it. He also watched as the clawed hand of wolfman ripped through his chest and its mouth closed over his head and bit it off. He checked the current status of Johnathan Bennard. It looked like Johnathan was dead. Tomorrow when the resurrection counter reset and he showed as dead the money he’d wagered would be released and his bonus for this cultivation was going to be awesome. Of course, if that didn’t happen…

He closed down his portals and decided to splurge a little, he wouldn’t be able to do anything about this until tomorrow morning anyway. He pulled some of the hardest liquor he had in stock, Demonic Hellfire Scotch. Made his way over to his couch and sent for one of the succubi on retainer to come to take care of his needs while he watched the suffering of the human race as monsters started spawning and killing.

Maxilinus was a Divine of Death after all and one of the original divines that had come up with the idea of cultivation. His screen shifted to a college campus in California that had the unfortunate luck of having a monster summoning obelisk appear in the middle of the campus. The monsters that appeared were what was expected, low-level slimes. What most didn’t know about the evolution of slimes was that some could flow and move like water, which meant they could move quickly. Their primary tactic was to flow over their target’s head and try to make their way inside them then dissolve the target from the inside out. By the time the slime was all the way inside its target though, the target was dead. 15 slimes had appeared in a dormitory and slid under doors making quick work of the women and men they found there. Working up and down the hall. Screams had woken everyone close by causing most to flee. As the bodies were dissolved they were added to the mass and when it doubled they split into two. In a relatively short order, the campus had been overrun by slimes and some had escaped into the sewer system. He smiled as he thought about how much death that was going to cause.

Maxilinus switched the feed to Punta Arenas to find something he had not expected to see. There was a Rank 2 Leviathan walking up out of the water. He checked the ambient magic of Punta Arenas which read 10. Something that brought the max to 10. What was going on? He was starting to have a bad feeling about this. A leviathan was a creature of the sea that could travel into the land. It looked kind of like a lobster except that it was about 500 feet tall. Its shells were metal of some sort and even gods didn’t mess them when they were full-grown. This one was just a baby. Along its front side, it had a nest of tentacles that were grabbing anything that wasn’t too big out of the water; animals, plants, and humans were grabbed and shuffled up into its wide mouth at the top of its torso just below what would be considered its chest. When it had come on land it had flooded the area and debris and people were floating all around it. Some of the people it grabbed were still alive. The Divine that handled terror was going to do well today too. Even without the children, there would still be plenty of soul stones this evening.

Because the soul-stones were so numerous the number that could be purchased was limited to 10 per person on the first day. That number would increase by 10 per day until it maxed out at 100 per day. As the purchases were on a first come first serve and everyone that had credit wanted them waiting until the end of the day usually didn’t work well. With the babies and adolescents out of play, the normally huge spike of stones at the beginning wouldn’t be as big as they’d estimated. That was okay though. With the appearance of a Rank 2 monster on the first day, within the first hour, This Cultivation was going to produce some blowback.

Lana, a succubi he’d grown fond of walked into the office and willed her clothes off. Succubi were higher-ranked demons that could take on the persona or likeness of anyone they wished. They’d volunteer to come to the Syndicate from time to time. The syndicate also employed lower-level Angels, the higher rank ones believing such duties beneath them. As for the question these earthlings keep asking about bosses sleeping with their subordinates, they were incredibly silly. He was a Divine, she was a demon. He wanted her, it was her role to serve him. Sometimes being evil was awesome, like now. She approached him and he soon forgot about anything but her. When they were done, she walked naked back to the door her tale swishing back and forth enticingly. Just before she reached the door, a soft flame engulfed her body, removing any evidence of their time together, and disappeared before she summoned her clothes back on. Without turning back, she opened the door and left. He liked her My-business-is-done-here, on-to-my-next-task-attitude, which she knew. That’s why he was the Boss.

When Johnathan Bennard set up a Safe Zone with no “Coward” timer he rechecked the status sheet and saw no change. The status sheet still showed Johnathan Bennard as dead. Then he remembered. Resurrections and raise dead spells could not happen until 6 a.m. the next day when the system would update the odds. He immediately sent the command to zero his feed onto Johnathan Bennard if or when he reappeared.

When 6 a.m. clicked past and 24 hours had gone by Maxilinus was not at all surprised when he found the following information:

Name: Johnathan Bennard

Location: Dallas Texas

Profession: Professor of Computer Science, University of North Texas at Dallas

Age: 35

Odds: 10,000 to 1 (1 week)

100,000 to 1 (1 Month)

500,000 to 1 (3 Months)

1,000,000 to 1 (12 Months)

Even the Gamblers Network recognized there was something special about Johnathan Bennard. Maxilinus knew then that this Cultivation was going to have complications.