Gilded Ghost (The Ripple System Book 3) Read online

  GILDED GHOST

  The Ripple System #3

  KYLE KIRRIN

  Thanks for checking out Gilded Ghost: The Ripple System #3.

  We hope you enjoy this latest instalment of Portal Books brand LitRPG/Progression Fantasy goodness, if you haven’t already, be sure to sign up to our mailing list to get access to the Portal Books Story Bundle containing over 80,000 words of FREE content from our authors.

  Our story bundle is all NEW never before seen content that you won’t read about in the author’s novels. Whenever we add more, you’ll get the updates too, absolutely free.

  https://portal-books.com/sign-up

  Feel free to check us out on Facebook too: it’s a great place to stay up to date with future releases. We also regularly run giveaways and promotions that everyone is welcome to participate in.

  https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGPortal/

  Best wishes,

  The Portal Books Team

  www.portal-books.com

  If you’d like a quick refresher on the major events of the previous two books, please visit the Shadeslinger Reddit!

  https://www.reddit.com/r/Shadeslinger/

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Afterword

  Portal Books Publishing

  More from Portal Books

  Join the Group

  Chapter One

  The mist from the many waterfalls we’d created by freeing Sarissa was drifting up into the afternoon sky, and the new rivers far below were racing between the dunes, surging across the black landscape.

  I dashed around Arlann and Sarissa and onto the lift; there was no time to waste. I needed to get a look at the Red Cathedral so that I could figure out what we were dealing with and what our next move would be.

  Darling must have been thinking the same thing because a message from her popped through that said she was heading there as well.

  The lift itself was empty—the nearby players and NPCs were busy gawking at the black desert below and the sapphire waters that were spreading through it—but the mechanism rumbled to life beneath me all the same, so I nodded at Arlann and Sarissa, double-checked that my illusion was still in place, then pulled up my menus.

  “Have House meet us at the Cathedral too,” Frank said. “There’s something you need to see that only she can pull off.”

  I squinted at him, dubious, then shrugged and sent her a message asking her to head out as well and meet us there. Couldn’t hurt.

  On second thought, it definitely could hurt, and that was probably the most likely scenario given that Frank was suggesting it, but I couldn’t afford to worry about that right now. I wanted to be racing across the sands on my bike the very moment the lift touched down, and I had alerts to page through and perks to select in the meantime.

  “Congratulations,” Frank said. “Your unthinking obedience has earned you a single Frank point. Feel free to rejoice, but quietly.”

  “Wow, lucky me… I’m getting warnings now, huh?”

  I tabbed through my alerts for those last few Ripples I’d caused, the sum of which had been worth a staggering 16,251 Renown, about 6,000 of which had come from the minor trio that had resulted from freeing the three members of the Triad while the great bulk of it had come from that last, colossal Ripple that had forever changed the Onyx Sands into the Onyx Delta.

  I pulled up the Renown ladder as the lift punched down into the cold, bright mist, and my skin prickled with goosebumps at the temperature change.

  1. {Ned} Renown Rank XI

  2. {Tyrann} Renown Rank XI

  3. {Geezeman} Renown Rank XI

  4. {Nissa} Renown Rank XI

  5. {Herata} Renown Rank X

  I cracked a smile at that. It felt good to be back on top, and Rank XII couldn’t be far off now.

  “You know how I feel about your smile,” Frank said.

  I widened my grin until my cheeks hurt and pointed it down in his direction, then made aggressive, unblinking eye contact.

  Frank made a gagging sound.

  I smiled even harder. “Are you uncomfortable, Frank?”

  “I’m attached to you. Uncomfortable is my middle name.”

  I paused. “The Axe of Uncomfortable Knowledge?”

  He grunted. “I can’t tell if you’re trying to be rude or funny because you’re terrible at both, but I do actually like the sound of that. And a great deal of my wisdom does chafe the metaphorical nether regions, if you catch my drift.”

  “What?”

  “Oh, are you confused? Allow me to be way, way more clear than is strictly necessary.”

  I leaned up against one of the railings that secured the lift and rubbed my face. “Or we could just move on and pretend I didn’t ask.”

  “My knowledge bombs are like sand in the interior webbing of a damp bathing suit, chafing against the smooth taintlands of the ignorant.”

  I winced. “I really could have done without that image.”

  “That is the nature of the burden I bear, Ned. It’s heavy, but don’t worry. I’ll continue to hilariously soldier on for as long as it takes.”

  “Don’t call yourself hilarious. Don’t be that guy.”

  “If you’ve got a stronger and more accurate word for what it is I am, let me know. I’m always looking to improve my lexicon when it comes to verbiage that I can use to describe myself.”

  I sighed. “Anyway, chafing is definitely a good descriptor for…” I trailed off and gestured vaguely in his direction. “You in general.”

  I pulled my list of available Renown Perks up.

  “Help me out with these real quick. At the very least we need to get the first pick settled so we can see what the second group of Renown Perks has on offer, but I’d love to get these all done before the lift touches down so we can keep it moving.”

  “Uh huh.”

  You may select 1 of 3 permanent Renown buffs.

  1. You may spend 2 gold from within your inventory to gain an additional Housing Slot. This perk may be used any number of times, but the cost will greatly increase with each use, and claiming more than 10 plots via this effect may result in negative consequences. br />
  2. You may spend 3 gold from your inventory to craft a {Forged Writ of Compulsion}. Writs may be used to rent NPC homes and businesses for one week without fail, but renting will incur an additional cost based on the plot’s daily net income. Income and benefits from rented plots are calculated as if you own them, but you may not Raze rented structures.

  3. Once every 48 hours, you may contract a Shadowy NPC that has a chance of awarding you with a free Housing Plot or several other, more minor benefits. However, the NPC has a high chance of failure, which on rare occasions can result in negative consequences.

  “You got anything on the scaling for that first one? Is the cost gonna double or something as we go on?”

  “Nah, it’s not that steep. It increases by 2 gold each time until you’ve used it ten times, then it goes up by 5 gold with each use forever and the possible penalty the prompt mentioned kicks in. Can’t comment on that.”

  “Thanks. The second looks pretty clear-cut with creating Writs of Compulsion to rent structures out for a week, but what about that third one? We summon a Shadowy NPC every 2 days and they might hand us a free plot?”

  “25% chance of success. I can’t say anything when it comes to the drawback if the NPC fails… I mean, I could say something. I could say a lot of things—”

  “Don’t.”

  I took a few steps forward and gripped the railing with both hands as the elevator inched lower. The rushing waters had already spread through the bulk of the desert, and the more distant rivers were churning and foaming toward the oceans that bordered the Onyx Delta to either side.

  “Let’s see,” I said. “With a 25% percent success rate over time, that’ll net us a free plot once every 4 tries, so that’s, what, a plot and change per week on average?”

  “You’d have an 87.5% chance of picking up a free plot every week, yeah.”

  “That’ll add up nicely over weeks or years—and it’s free and it never ends—but it’s not going to do much of anything for us in the short term. We need to be ramping up, not settling for a long-term plateau.

  “The Writ one’s kind of cool. It’d probably be pretty powerful to rent a bunch of inns right now with so many players heading our way, but I’d rather spend my gold on expanding the city than renting the stuff that’s already around. That seems like where the money’s really at.”

  I selected the first pick, because what I really wanted was more plots as soon as humanly possible.

  “Any objections?”

  “I object to the fact that I haven’t Franked anyone for at least ten minutes.”

  “Really? You’re already on about that?”

  “Yup. In my opinion it required a laudable amount of restraint on my part to avoid mentioning it earlier, but once you get a taste of smashing face it’s all you can think about.”

  “It was a nice moment, man. Can we at least give it a couple hours before we completely run it into the ground?”

  “Running things into the ground is what I do, Ned.”

  “Not sure why you’re proud of that, but I’m just saying pick your moments. Like, maybe you get to Frank somebody every 24 hours.”

  “Counteroffer: 1,440 Franks, same timeline.”

  “That’s oddly specific.”

  “It’s the number of minutes in a day.”

  I confirmed the first option as my Renown Perk choice, then pulled up the second list of perks as it became available.

  “I’m surprised you didn’t start with Franks per second, but we’re shelving this conversation for now.”

  “Fine, but I’m going to bring it up repeatedly in the future. And I’m gonna be super annoying about it.”

  “Didn’t need to be said.”

  I tabbed through to the next round of perks, doing a double-take at the slightly different initial line.

  You may select 1 of 3 permanent Major Renown Perks.

  1. For every 5 Housing Plots you own within a single zone, you permanently gain a stack of {Landlord’s Momentum}. Each stack of {Landlord’s Momentum} increases the sum of your total daily payout by 5%, and you may have any number of stacks.

  However, this effect is reduced when applied to the daily payouts received from networked buildings.

  2. All Housing Plots you control now radiate {Opportunist’s Aura}. {Opportunist’s Aura} prevents buildings that share the same purpose as the radiating building from being constructed within 100 yards.

  However, this ability has no effect on structures that have already been built or are in the process of being built, and your structures must be complete and generate at least 2 silver coins per day or goods worth 2 silver coins per day in order to radiate.

  3. All of your profitable Housing Plots now exert {Golden Strangle} on other NPC and Player-owned plots and structures within 40 yards. Stacks of {Golden Strangle} accrue whenever your Housing Plots are drastically out-earning the structures or plots around them.

  Whenever a Housing Plot reaches 50 stacks of {Golden Strangle}, you may forcibly purchase the Housing Plot at fair market value. Plots purchased via this method do not count against your Housing Plot limit.

  However, this effect only applies to cities in which your local daily payout is the highest amongst all other Player landowners.

  “Major Renown Perks, huh? That’s a first.” I stared at the options, eyes widening. “Wow. These are something else.”

  “Starting to hit the apex for Black Marketeer perks when it comes to power.”

  “Does that mean I’m close to picking my next Renown Path?”

  “Rank XII, yeah,” Frank said. “But XI to XII is a big jump in the amount of Renown required for the same reason.”

  “Still, we gotta be almost there with all those Ripples that went out.”

  “Probably hit it tomorrow if you don’t screw things up too badly. I advise that you find something important and Frank it as soon as possible. Seems to have worked out pretty well for you so far.”

  I shook my head, grinning as I scanned the three options. “Can you hit me with the math for Landlord’s Momentum? A stacking buff for every 5 plots is nice, but what’s the reduction like for networked buildings?”

  “From 5% per stack down to 2.5%.”

  I pursed my lips. “So, rough math for the Auction House: we’ve got 7 plots now, so we’d get a 2.5% boost to start for the payout there, which is going to be accounting for most of our income pretty soon if it isn’t already.

  “We could probably buy a few more plots with that last perk we selected to get our total plots to ten right away, but that’s dumping a lot of gold for a 5% boost to the Auction House and 10% to everything else early on when we could be getting a lot more bang for our buck by going wide.”

  “Getting up to ten plots would run you 12 gold.”

  I nodded, considering. “Okay, so not quite as expensive as I was thinking. But it still feels more targeted for inns and the like where the buff isn’t halved and it stacks up faster. Though I guess I might be kicking myself for passing on a percentage-based increase in 6 months if the network gets as big as I hope.”

  “And even if you aren’t kicking yourself in the future, you know I’ll step up if needed.”

  “Step up for what?”

  “Kicking you. How was that not clear?”

  “It’s kinda odd coming from a guy without legs, and I was only half-listening.”

  “Yeah, keep talking. We’ll see how you feel when a severed shin flies out of nowhere and clocks you in the mouth.”

  “I’d mostly just be impressed if you pulled that off, actually. Super concerned about where you got the shin, but definitely impressed.”

  I shivered. The mist was incredibly cold, and it had become so thick that I couldn’t even see the other side of the elevator, let alone the sands below.

  I gave that first perk another quick once-over, then scanned Opportunist’s Aura, which had really interesting implications. I loved the idea of preventing people from building another Auction House
or inn near my structures, but the way the Vale was built presented a problem: the Auction House was located centrally enough to keep people from constructing a similar building in the Commerce Ward, but the other wards would be fair game.

  However, the drawback of needing my structures to earn 2 silver coins per day to radiate was trivial at this point, and I couldn’t argue with the power the perk offered when it came to expanding into other cities—particularly underdeveloped ones—and dominating the busiest spaces. But that wasn’t the angle I had in mind at the moment.

  And that brought me to the third and final perk, which in all honesty had really caught my attention in the first place.

  “Any chance you’ve got better numbers on Golden Strangle? It says stacks accrue when our buildings drastically out-earn the ones around it, and at fifty stacks we can buy the buildings, but how exactly do the stacks build?”

  “I can’t give you the rates the buff stacks, but they’ll start accruing on any nearby structures that fall under 25% of the daily total of the buildings you’ve got around them. And the lower a building’s income, the faster the stacks will ramp up.”

  “So with the Auction House and how much we stand to make, that would probably stack up on everything nearby, right? And pretty quickly.”