“But I need to take care of one small bit of housekeeping first,” Rory said, sighing as he slowly pushed himself up. “I intended to take care of this at some point, but I wanted to push it off until near the end of the year.”

  “Reinterpretation?” Apostolos questioned; the only thing he could think of that was somewhat time-sensitive.

  “Bingo,” Rory said with a half-smile as instantly he found himself floating in a void, a now long familiar desk with an abstract being seated next to it nearby.

  “Architect,” Eon gave him a slight downward tilt of its head. “It’s been some time,”

  “Not that long… I think. Man, I’m starting to lose track of the years,” Rory said as he walked through the void to take his spot across the table from the cosmic being. “You seem a bit… different,” Rory said, pointing out what he’d been noticing for years but avoiding saying.

  Eon was changing.

  When he’d first seen the avatar of Eon, it had been faceless, a being only in the shape of a person. Now, its face had the two black hole pits that stood in for eyes, a crack in space and time standing in for a nose, and even a jagged starburst in place of its mouth, every word spoken a glimpse into an exploding supernova.

  “Change comes to all,” Eon said. “As all of existence continues to grow and mature, I’ve also grown and matured as an existence in myself.”

  “You said I.” Rory pointed out. “So… are you going to go all Skynet on us?”

  The cosmic existence tilted its head as if confused.

  “Skynet?”

  “You know, like the old movies that… wait, shouldn’t you know that? Thought you had a bunch of old universe knowledge.”

  Eon’s supernova mouth turned slightly downward as if… irritated.

  “I have mentioned this before. Over time, the stored knowledge of what once was will eventually decay into simple energy. The… lesser points have already started to fade.”

  Oh, damn. I guess I should start documenting stuff that I might want saved. Of course, that sort of mentality assumes that I won’t be around to pass it around anyway… Whatever, topic for another day.

  “Right, well, that’s all very interesting,” Rory said offhandedly, having more pressing concerns than the literal information decay of his former universe. “But I’m here with a specific goal,”

  “Of course,” Eon said smoothly, shifting topics without a hint of hesitation.

  “I want to shake up how Waves work.”

  Eon was silent, prompting Rory to continue.

  “Right, so originally, Waves functioned on a one-week timer, but that timer gradually shifted into more of a ‘suggestion’ considering you could prematurely end the cooldown. Following that, based on my assumption of the scaling of the waves, a week between waves is… well, undoable without already being roughly as strong as your intended end wave goal.”

  Eon nodded, letting Rory continue his observations.

  “I’ve been thinking about it more the last few years, ever since my last encounter with the Waves. What if there was another option? Say, a ‘hard’ option that one could opt into, and rather than the ‘soft’ timer of one week between waves, it would be a hard cooldown of one year between waves.”

  “Why?” Eon asked, curious about his reasoning.

  “Practicality. Trying to do the one hundred wave gauntlet would take a little over two years, but to even reach the point of being capable of handling a tier-eight, what I suspect to be at the end of all one hundred waves, would still be something like what, a hundred, a hundred and twenty years?”

  Rory wasn’t sure; the energy requirement between ascensions wasn’t a hard science after all. Each ascension required a significant increase in energy to achieve, elongating the time between tiers. Yet, the stronger monsters killed rewarded more energy, as did the creation of more rigorous crafts projects. At the very least, based on his years spent questioning the topic, he’d felt something like a hundred twenty years cumulative would be around the ballpark of tier-eight.

  “Anyway, my point is, you, E.O.N,” Rory enunciated the name as if separating Eon the avatar and E.O.N. the system. “Don’t like when systems aren’t made use of. That’s why you scrapped the growth pathway system, right? So, if no one plans to engage with your Waves for over a hundred years, I figured you’d want to alter that, right?”

  Eon was silent for a beat before answering.

  “Waves are not the sole responsibility of E.O.N.; they are also partially mandated and overseen by the local World Spirit. Yet, what you say brings up a good point.”

  Rory felt his hopes rise momentarily before they were dashed a second later.

  “While your suggestion has merit, there are issues with such a system. Rather than providing a passable difficulty, it will simplify things far too much as things stand with the ability to cancel a wave freely.”

  Rory frowned, thinking of what to counter with, only to not have to bother as Eon held up a black and silver sheened hand.

  “Non-negotiable year cooldown, non-cancelable, and a 100x wave multiplier.”

  Rory stared at Eon’s avatar, jaw hanging agape for several seconds before he found his voice.

  “One… one hundred? As in, if there were ten tier-fives normally, then-”

  “One thousand, correct.”

  Rory frowned, thinking the counteroffer through.

  Everything else is fine, but… one hundred? Isn’t that damn near a death sentence if you can’t keep pace with the rate of growth needed? Especially if you can’t back out once you’ve started,”

  “Ten percent checkpoints,” Rory added after a second of thought. “So, if the gauntlet is one hundred waves and you clear ten waves, you can back out.”

  “Gauntlet progress will be reset, but the most recent wave difficulty will be maintained.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  It meant that if you backed out thirty waves into the gauntlet when you next attempted the hundred-wave gauntlet, the first wave would be at the level of whatever wave thirty was at.

  “That’s acceptable,” Rory said. The rule was basically what already existed with how waves currently worked.

  “Lastly, wave density will adjust based on population,” Eon added with a final nod.

  “Didn’t know that it didn’t already,” Rory muttered. “Is that everything for my reinterpretation to be accepted?”

  “It is,” Eon said.

  “Great, well then, if that’s the case-”

  “Architect, ensuring you understand what you suggest may be prudent.”

  “Excuse me?” Rory questioned, surprised that Eon would even offer such a statement.

  “Your intent is obvious,” Eon said. “While you sell this as a chance to make the Wave system used more, it is clear you intend to streamline your workload via the rewards from the waves.”

  “So?” Rory said, somewhat defensively; it had been some time since anything had spoken to him in such a way. “Is that really that big of a problem? It’s not like it only affects me.”

  “No,” Eon said simply. “It is not a problem. Yet, E.O.N. believes it is wise for you to reconsider your understanding of reinterpretation as a ‘personal boon’ and understand changes you suggest may benefit others more than yourself.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Do you believe the other founders, who are almost entirely combat-focused, would utilize the Wave system if it required them to stay in one place for a hundred weeks straight?”

  “…No,” Rory said, thinking it through.

  “Now, if it were changed to only once a year?”

  “Fine, fine, I see your point.” Rory groaned. “Honestly, I’m surprised you’d even bother informing me of that. Almost feels like favoritism for your creator.” Rory said, unwisely ribbing the existence that could seemingly manipulate anything.

  “Perhaps. As E.O.N has grown and become further integrated with existence itself, a degree of personality, of individualistic spark, is to be expected thanks to the root prerogative of E.O.N being sparked by a former mortal, yourself.”

  Rory stared at the cosmic being, stunned at the admission. It was strange to think how much it had changed, and Rory wasn’t sure if he liked that it had or what it might imply for the future.

  You know what, that’s a problem for future Rory.

  “Well, thanks. Guess we can implement that Wave modification now.” Rory said, suddenly wishing to leave the strange existence that was Eon behind.

  “Granted,” Eon nodded.

  As instantly as he’d appeared floating in a void, Rory found himself again in his forge, a beeping notification alerting him to something he already knew.

  “I take it this notification is your doing?” Apostolos questioned, his eyes gazing to the side, where he must have seen his own notification.

  “I had Waves changed, or sort of changed.”

  “Siege Mode?” Apostolos read off the notification, taking stock of everything that had happened. “Huh, some of these I thought were already baked in.’

  “Same, but it’s probably a matter of reaffirming them, especially if the other founders and their little underlings-” Rory winked at Apostolos as he spoke, who rolled his eyes in response. “-have largely avoided using Waves. Which brings us to a reality that Eon went out of its way to make clear to me,”

  “Which is?”

  “The others will likely begin to take advantage of Waves more than they have in the past, now that they don’t have to be cemented in spot for weeks on end.”

  “Oh… Yeah, that does make sense.” Apostolos said with a sigh. “Too bad we didn’t take more advantage of the waves ourselves during this time.”

  “You wanted to press our luck after what happened last time?”

  “…. No,” Apostolos said quietly.

  “Well, there you go,” Rory said with a huff before remembering the serpent coiled around his arm. “Alright, we can discuss this more tomorrow morning, as we’ve got a few things to review.”

  “If you say so,” Apostolos said. “Well, good night, master,”

  “Goodnight, Apostolos.”

  Rory awoke with a large yawn and stretch. Still sleepy, he meant to scratch at his neck before his hand was stopped, meeting scales instead of flesh.

  “Oh. Morning to you, Eia,” Rory said, taking stock of the serpent staring down at him; her eyes almost felt as if they were judging him for sleeping in late. “What? I like to sleep.”

  The serpent flicked its tongue indignantly before looking away. The night prior, when he’d gone to bed, the snake hadn’t bothered to detach, and it wasn’t as if he had anywhere for it to stay elsewhere. Thus, he’d gone to bed wearing the world’s scaliest scarf.

  Already getting used to having the snake hanging around him -literally- Rory sat around their campfire, waiting for Apostolos to return from wherever he’d gone for the morning.

  I still need to make a coffee plant. That said, Arboriculture will have to get a number and wait in line like everything else on my plate.

  Dismissing thoughts of the details needed to raise a coffee tree into existence, Rory only had to wait several minutes before Apostolos appeared, lugging a monster that resembled a moose behind him, if a moose had quills and tree branches instead of antlers.

  Oh, a Pukilin. You don’t see those often.

  “Got some monster material,” Apostolos said simply as he dragged the carcass toward their storage shed.

  And there he goes, expecting me to deal with it.

  Rory wouldn’t deny that the monster had some rather valuable parts, so he wasn’t that annoyed with being handed another task.

  “Good, well, take a seat. It’s time we covered our new plans for the future,” Rory said as Apostolos wandered over and sat opposite Rory around the bonfire.

  “Are you abandoning your three-step plan?” Apostolos asked after a moment, suppressing a smirk as he did.

  “No, I’m modifying it. The original intent was to fortify and secure a base of power. With you brought up to tier-six, ‘industry, brought to this magical world, and a modernized settlement, we could bunker down and push outward, growing the settlement steadily as we’d gain more citizens from either Aelia or Eon over time. Like that, we could have the full force of a city behind us.”

  “So, what changed?”

  “A few things. First, our friend, the Khan of Blue Lightning. He’s expecting me to get him some Aura Conduits made. Can’t exactly work on that while I’m working on every single damn project under the suns.”

  “Meaning?”

  “I used my reinterpretation charge to expand the wave system to include that ‘Siege’ option so that rather than having to do all the projects myself actively, we could instead funnel Ascension Energy into the camp to use as a way of doing it for us.”

  “You don’t have to improve the camp if it does it for you,”

  “Exactly,” Rory confirmed.

  “So, your other reasons?”

  “Boredom,” Rory answered honestly. “It was enjoyable to do something other than just crafting for once. So, rather than forever slave away at a million and one project, it gives me something else to prepare for and a big event to look forward to once a year.”

  “A big event is one way to describe it,” Apostolos said warily. “A one hundred times multiplier is a steep increase in monsters. Are you sure we can handle that?”

  “With you at tier-six, your weapon, a few additions to the camp, and a new team member? Yeah, I think so. The big thing is it will be a bit of a race to stay ahead of the difficulty curve of the Waves. Assuming they start as low-tier-five once again, the first few years should be manageable at our current levels, but if we don’t push our capabilities, being swarmed by a thousand high-tier-five monsters will be a damn near impossible battle.”

  “Wait, new team member? You mean the snake?” Apostolos questioned, perplexed.

  “Eia.” Rory corrected. “And yes. Over the next year, I plan to push Eia to grow as fast as possible. She won’t make tier-six in that time, but as monsters constantly grow throughout their tier and not just at ascension tier ups…”

  “She’ll be more useful than a normal tier-five person,” Apostolos said, finishing Rory’s thought. “And the snake will just… go along with this?”

  “Eia.” Rory corrected for a second time. “And that depends. Will you, Eia?”

  The snake glanced at Apostolos and Rory before wrapping tighter around his arm.

  “How cute, you’ve got a snake daughter,” Apostolos said dryly.

  Rory shot Apostolos a dirty look before sighing.

  “So, that’s the new plan. Not much different from the old one, just that we’ll have to take a more forward approach going… forward.” Rory said, chewing over the words.

  Forward approach going forward. That is not my best phrasing.

  “Speak for yourself. I’ve been pushing myself,” Apostolos said with a grin. “You’re the old man who’s been cooped up inside his workshops all day, every day, and after getting his first taste of freedom in years, he realizes he is going stir crazy.”

  “Bah,” Rory rolled his eyes before looking at the serpent. “And you? You’re fine with this?”

  Other than a flick of her tongue, the snake, thankfully, did not respond.

  “Great,” Rory said, carefully clapping his hands, given that a snake was partially wrapped around one of his arms. “Well, this was quite the productive meeting.”

  As he spoke, Rory frowned momentarily, Apostolos looking at him with concern across his face.

  “Something the matter?”

  “No, just….” Rory said, still frowning. “It’s just that… I realized this meeting could have been an email.”

  how the mechanics of a LitRPG world came to be.

  slight spoiler for tier seven is when we're finally going to delve into proper city building.